Contactless Two-Axis Inclination Measurement System Using Planar Flux-Gate Sensor

A tilt-sensitive measuring system exploiting a low-cost planar printed-circuit-board (PCB) flux-gate sensor is described. We propose a system topology that exploits two magnets and a flux-gate sensor to realize a two-axis tilt-sensitive measuring system. The sensing configuration has been investigated using electromagnetic modeling software first. Then, the prototype characterization has shown system sensitivity up to 4 V/° and integral nonlinearity (INL) down to 1%. Mainly limited by the mechanical implementation, the obtained system dynamic range is about ±3°.