A high-sensitivity zero-biased magnetoelectric sensor using five-phase laminate composites based on FeCoV nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloy

This paper present a high-sensitivity zero-biased ME sensor consists of FeCoV/Terfenol-D/Pb(Zr1-x,Tix)O3(PZT)/Terfenol-D/FeCoV (FMPMF), whose magnetoelectric (ME) coupling characteristics and ME sensing performance have been investigated. Compared to traditional Terfenol-D/PZT/Terfenol-D (MPM) sensor, the zero-biased ME coupling characteristics of FMPMF sensor were significantly improved. Meanwhile, the induced zero-biased ME voltage of FMPMF sensor shows an excellent linear relationship to ac magnetic field both at the low frequency (1kHz) and the resonant frequency (115.14 kHz). The measured sensitivity at resonance is 1.95 V/Oe and the output resolution is approximately 2.43×10-8T. The proposed FMPMF sensors still have very good performance in the current sensing. The measured results shows an average sensitivity of 1.14 mV/A with highly linear behavior in the current range 1 A to 10 A at 50 Hz. Remarkably, it indicates that the proposed zero-biased miniature ME sensor give the prospect of being able to applied to the field of highly sensitive current sensing for the electricity monitoring in electric power grid.