I C E S T 2012 28-30 JUNE, 2012, VELIKO TARNOVO, BULGARIA

Different Technological Methods for Offset

Compensation in Si Hall Effect Sensors
Ivelina Cholakova1
Abstract – This paper presents technological methods for offset candidates for such applications due to their cost-effective
compensation of symmetrical Hall sensors. The offset integration potential. But they have a stress voltage offset
compensation is one of the most important tasks to solve for which cannot be easily compensated in the production line, so
accurate measurements by such type of magnetic sensors. The that the offset reduction methods have to be applied [4].
presented methods could be a good solution because the main
There is a spinning current method which averages the
conductive region is deeply "buried" in the epitaxial layer. In
this way it will be away from the surface and well isolated from results of several consecutive Hall measurements with
the substrate modulation. different orientations in the crystal plane. Very low residual
offsets in the microtesla range can be achieved but the
Keywords – Magnetic sensors, Hall effect sensors, offset circuitry required may introduce problems [4].
compensation, CMOS 0.18 µm technology. The so called Anti-Hall (AH) method for Hall plates
described in [5] also utilizes different orientations in the
current injection. The currents are injected at different points
but at the same time on the outer and inner boundaries of the
I.INTRODUCTION sample. Besides the magnetic field sensitive signal, a separate
stress sensitive signal can be measured simultaneously at
A Hall element is used for contactless measurement, for another pair of voltage contacts.
example as linear and angular positions, electrical current and Of course, there are many schematic solutions for offset
power, etc. The Hall element, fabricated by means of CMOS reduction. The simplest method of offset adjustment is shown
technology gives a weak output signal (of the order of few in Fig. 1, and uses a manual potentiometer to null out the
millivolts). This signal is corrupted of offset and noise [1]. offset of the Hall effect transducer. The potentiometer is used
The offset is the output signal of the modulating type of to set a voltage either positive or negative with respect to the
sensor (in most cases with a differential output) in the absebse output sense terminal, and a high value resistor sets an offset
of an external magnetic field (B = 0). Essentially, this kind of current into or out of the transducer. It is possible to null out
error is a static value or a very slow variation with time of either positive or negative offsets with this scheme.
voltage, current or frequency. If there is no additional
information concerning the magnetic field or the sensor itself,
the offset cannot be distinguished from the useful output
signal. If the offset is time invariant, it causes a parallel shift
of the whole calibration curve [2]. The offset occurrence is
due to several external and internal reasons, as most of them
are related mainly to the fabrication process as tolerance of
device geometry (for example misalignment of Hall
terminals), non-uniform distribution of doping impurities,
uneven thickness, crystal damage and dislocations,
mechanical stress and strain. Great numbers of methods are
utilized in order to reduce or compensate the offset: applying
improved fabrication technologies or particular sensor
constructions; additional technological treatment of each
device; formation of additional control electrodes in the active Fig. 1. Manual offset adjustment using potentiometer
sensor area, various offset compensation circuits, sensitivity-
variation offset reduction method, etc [3]. A feature of this method is that it can be used regardless of
whether the transducer is biased with constant current or a
II. METHODS FOR OFFSET REDUCTION OF A HALL constant voltage source [6].
EFFECT DEVICE More complicated method, for example is the dynamic
compensation of the offset of an integrated Hall sensor with
an instrumentation amplifier. As a result of the interchange of
In many applications magnetic sensors are used, e.g. for
the bias and Hall contacts, Hall voltage remains with the same
contactless measurements. Silicon Hall sensors are the prime
value and sign, while the offset retains its magnitude, but its
sign is reversed. By using the sample & hold technique the
1
Ivelina Cholakova is with the Faculty of Electronic Engineering signals from each of the two consecutive commutations are
and Technologies at Technical University of Sofia, 8 Kl. Ohridski added in the signal processing circuit which in essential is a
Blvd, Sofia 1000, Bulgaria, E-mail: [email protected]. instrumentation amplifier. This approach enables building

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I C E S T 2012 28-30 JUNE, 2012, VELIKO TARNOVO, BULGARIA

electronic systems for accurate contactless measurements by aim the offset to be cancelled. The test equipment is
magnetosensitive device [3]. shown in Fig. 3.
Another solution, for example, is proposed by Melexis in
their Programmable Linear Hall Effect Sensor. CMOS
Programmable, Ratiometric Linear Hall Effect sensor IC. The
linear output voltage is proportional to the magnetic flux
density. The ratiometric output voltage is proportional to the
supply voltage. The MLX90251 possesses active error
correction circuitry, which virtually eliminates the offset
errors normally associated with analog Hall Effect devices.
Integrated on the MLX90251 is a temperature-compensated
quad switched Hall plate, chopper stabilized amplifiers,
adjustable output filter, output driver, voltage protection Fig. 3. Test equipment
circuitry and a programmable EEPROM with security and
redundancy. Programming the EEPROM allows each device The equipment is made in order four Hall plates to be
to be calibrated in the application [7]. tested at once. A LabVIEW program was created for more
An alternative to all mentioned methods above, are the automated test process. For chip measurements a Keithley
technological methods for offset compensation, some of them 2602 was used which is duo channel source meter with
will be described in the publication with experimental results. 10,000 readings/s and 5.500 source-measure points/s to
The offset originating from the mask misalignment can be memory. One of the channels is used as a source to supply
minimized by designing an appropriate layout of the sensor. the test chip and the other channel is used to measure the
Also the sensor should be symmetrical for better results. The output signal. The plates are tested in six different supply
sensor geometry could also be optimized [1]. One of the voltages (from 0.5V to 3.00V with step of 0.5V). We also
proposed methods is the cell to be rotated to 45 degrees in use a Switch Matrix Board with 64 relays which provide
order to orient it along the crystallographic direction (110). It the 4-phase spinning method, which in our case is used to
is experimentally proved that in this direction the piezo- cancel the offset (Fig. 4).
resistive coefficient takes the minimum for an N-well Hall
device.
A 40um Hall plate was implemented as a basic cell. The
layers used in the design are: 3.3V N-well, n-implantation for
the contacts, diffusion layer, p-implantation, which is a
shallow p+ layer which increases the average resistance and
decreases the thickness of the Hall plate. It also acts as an
electrostatic shield. The main purpose is to avoid the surface
malformations which lead to offset; there is also a metal layer
on the top of the Hall sensor which acts as a shield layer. The
basic cell is illustrated on Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Hall plate

Fig. 4. 4-phase spinning method
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The experimental results are shown at Table 1, where the
residual offset is in µV and the supply voltage is at Volts. The
A test chip was designed with Hall sensors on the XFAB
structure which is examined is designed with shallow trench
XH018 process. The purpose of this test chip is to test isolation layer (STI) instead of active area and is shown in
different Hall sensors on the XFAB XH018 technology Fig. 5.
and to find the optimum Hall sensors for future projects on
this technology.
The sensors were tested in order the residual offset to be
established. A four-phase spinning method is used with the

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TABLE I REFERENCES
RESIDUAL OFFSET
[1] Zoran B. Randjelovic, Maher Kayal, Radevoje Popovic and
Supply voltage, Residual Residual Residual
Hubert Blanchard, Highly Sensitive Hall Magnetic Sensor
V Offset, uV Offset, uV Offset, uV Microsystem in CMOS TechnologyHighly Sensitive Hall
0.5 1.8675 1.881 1.147 Magnetic Sensor Microsystem in CMOS Technolog, IEEE
1 0.7185 0.553 0.054 JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 37, NO. 2,
1.5 0.8275 1.0125 0.7125 pp. 151-159, 2002.
2 0.501 1.2865 0.693 [2] C. S. Roumenin, Solid State Magnetic Sensor, HANDBOOK
2.5 1.9515 1.46 0.926 OF SENSORS AND ACTUATORS, Volume 2, Elsevier, 1994.
[3] Kamen Fillyov, Tihomir Takov, Tzvetelina Tzeneva, Slaveiko
3 1.9255 1.9745 1.494 Neytchev, Slavka Tzanova, Dynamic Compensation of the
Offset of an Integrated Hall Sensor with an Instrumentation
Amplifier, 6th IMAPS International Symposium for Design and
Technology of Electronic Modules, SIITME 2000, Bucharest,
21 -24 September, 2000, pp. 119-123
[4] C. Muller-Schwanneke, F. Jost, K. Marx, S. Lindenkreuz, K.
von Klitzing, Offset reduction in silicon Hall sensors, Sensors
and Actuators 81 (2000), Elsevier, pp. 18-22.
[5] R.G. Mani, K. von Klitzing, F. Jost, K. Marx, S. Lindenkreuz,
H.P. Trah, Method for simultaneously reducing the
misalignment offset and separating the Hall voltage from the
off-diagonal piezoresistive voltage in Hall effect and
piezoresistive devices based on silicon, Appl. Phys. Lett. 67
Fig. 5. Hall plate with STI layer 1994 2223.
[6] Ed Ramsden, Hall Effect Sensors Theory Application,
The results present that the worst residual offset is at 0.5V Advanstar Communications, Cleveland, Ohio, 2001.
and it is ~ 0.9% of the output signal. [7] Melexis Microelectronic Integrated Circuits, Datasheet,
Programmable Linear Hall Effect Sensor MLX90251.

Fig. 4 illustrates three measurements at the same Hall plates

under certain conditions. This result is in accordance with the
maximum limits for the residual offset and the sensor is
appropriate for the applications it is designed, because a high
accuracy is required in the automotive industry.

IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper a technological solutions of symmetrical 0.18
CMOS Hall effect sensors for effectively offset compensation
are proposed and explained. These solutions effectively
improve the stability of the Hall output voltage, because the
residual offset, which is inevitable, is optimally reduced.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The research in this paper was carried out within the
framework of Contract No. 122ПД0060-03.

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