Real-time monitoring of position and motion of a non-stationary object with a highly sensitive magnetic impedance sensor

The real-time monitoring of the position and speed of a moving object is crucial for safety compliance in industrial applications. The effectiveness of current sensing technology is limited by sensing distance and messy environments. In this work, a position and speed sensor based on the giant magneto-impedance effect was fabricated using a Joule annealed Co-rich magnetic microwire. The fabricated GMI sensor response was explored over a frequency range of 1 MHz–1 GHz. The impedance spectrum showed a high GMI ratio and high field sensitivity response at low magnetic fields. The GMI sensor based longitudinal effect was found to be more sensitive than a commercial Gaussmeter. The practical utility of the high sensitivity of the sensor at weak magnetic fields for far-off distance monitoring of position and speed was demonstrated. This GMI-based sensor is highly promising for real-time position detection and oscillatory motion monitoring.