<P> A MEMS magnetic field sensor is a small - scale microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) device for detecting and measuring magnetic fields (Magnetometer). Many of these operate by detecting effects of the Lorentz force: a change in voltage or resonant frequency may be measured electronically, or a mechanical displacement may be measured optically . Compensation for temperature effects is necessary . Its use as a miniaturized compass may be one such simple example application . </P> <P> Magnetometers can be categorized into four general types depending on the magnitude of the measured field . If the targeted B - field is larger than the earth magnetic field (maximum value around 60 μT), the sensor does not need to be very sensitive . To measure the earth field larger than the geomagnetic noise (around 0.1 nT), better sensors are required . For the application of magnetic anomaly detection, sensors at different locations have to be used to cancel the spatial - correlated noise in order to achieve a better spatial resolution . To measure the field below the geomagnetic noise, much more sensitive magnetic field sensors have to be employed . These sensors are mainly used in medical and biomedical applications, such as MRI and molecule tagging . </P> <P> There are many approaches for magnetic sensing, including Hall effect sensor, magneto - diode, magneto - transistor, AMR magnetometer, GMR magnetometer, magnetic tunnel junction magnetometer, magneto - optical sensor, Lorentz force based MEMS sensor, Electron Tunneling based MEMS sensor, MEMS compass, Nuclear precession magnetic field sensor, optically pumped magnetic field sensor, fluxgate magnetometer, search coil magnetic field sensor and SQUID magnetometer . </P>

Increasing the sensitivity of a magnetic sensor by a factor of eight would result in