Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (11) (2017) 5415~5421

www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x(Print)/1976-3824(Online)
DOI 10.1007/s12206-017-1036-x

Modeling and simulation of non-spiral coil for magnetic sensing applications†

Krishnapriya S.1,*, Rama S. Komaragiri2 and Suja K. J.1
1
National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India
2
Bennett University, Noida, India

(Manuscript Received March 20, 2017; Revised June 12, 2017; Accepted July 3, 2017)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract

Microcoils are essential components in magnetic sensors made using Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Non-
spiral microcoils have fabrication advantages over conventional spiral coils and can be effectively used in MEMS micro sensors for gen-
eration and detection of magnetic fields. In this work, an analytical model of peak flux density, sensitivity, and resolution for the non-
spiral planar microcoil is reported for the first time. Self and mutual inductances of a non-spiral coil are used to calculate the flux density
at the innermost turn of the coil. The model derived is compared with standard fabrication results, and it is found to be in good agreement
with the experimental results.
Keywords: Flux density; Inductance; Micro-electro-mechanical systems; Non-spiral planar microcoil
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ported in literature such as on polyimide substrate as a flexible

1. Introduction
material, glass, Gallium-Arsenide substrates, etc. [6-8].
Microcoil is usually a tiny electrical conductor in the form MEMS micro-fabrication techniques allow batch fabrica-
of a spiral or a helical shape. Planar microcoils greatly help tion of planar coils. The important geometrical design parame-
the miniaturization of magnetic devices or instruments. Planar ters of the planar coil other than coil diameter are its inner coil
coils can provide improved sensitivity as the diameter of the radius, width, the number of coil turns, and spacing between
coil is inversely proportional to its sensitivity [1-3]. Planar them. The prominent figure of merits of planar microcoils are
microcoils have wide applications in the field of Nuclear sensitivity and resolution [9]. For planar microcoils that are
magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for biomedical im- being used as NMR detection coils, one critical parameter is
aging [1]. Other applications include wireless power transfer, its Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) which is more significant than
microfluidics, and eddy current non-destructive testing [1-4], coil sensitivity and resolution. SNR strongly depends on the
etc. Electromagnetic microcoils can be used to generate a geometrical design parameters of the coil [10].
magnetic field when it is excited with an electric current. Mi- Circular planar microcoils are further categorized into spiral
crocoils can also be used to detect the presence of magnetic and non-spiral types. Field distribution is different between
field which makes them useful as micro magnetic sensors. If a spiral and non-spiral coils. Non-spiral micro coils do not re-
magnetic field is present in the coil ambiance, it will induce a quire interconnection between inner coil and output pads
current in the microcoil, based on which the field can be whereas the spiral one needs inner planar coil to be connected
measured. with the output pad using wire interconnection or a via con-
Planar microcoils fabricated using photolithography and nection [11]. Therefore, an extra lithography level and metal-
electrodeposition are advantageous as this can reduce the de- lization step are needed to connect a spiral microcoil which
vice volume compared with solenoidal microcoils [1]. For coil indicates that fabrication process steps are simpler for the non-
diameter (d) such as 100 µm < d < 1 mm, solenoidal mi- spiral microcoil [12, 13].
crocoils are normally hand-wrapped using copper wire. For In this work, an analytical model for maximum flux density,
smaller coil dimensions such as d < 100 µm, planar litho- sensitivity and resolution is developed for non-spiral circular
graphic fabrication techniques are required to produce multi- coils. To verify the model, a comparison is performed be-
turn microcoils [5]. Planar coil fabrication processes are re- tween experimental results and the analytical model derived in
*
this work. Simulation work is carried out on non-spiral coils
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9497316539
E-mail address: [email protected]; [email protected]
with different geometrical parameters to analyze the behavior
†
Recommended by Associate Editor Woo-Tae Park of non-spiral planar microcoils. Comparison with a spiral mi-
© KSME & Springer 2017 crocoil of similar dimensions is also performed, and turns'
5416 Krishnapriya S. et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (11) (2017) 5415~5421

Maximum voltage induced at the inner coil can be computed

using Eq. (4). In Eq. (4), L and M are the self-inductance and
mutual inductance of the inner coil, respectively.

 di   di 
Vmax = L   + M   . (4)
  max
dt  dt  max

Mutual inductance between the inner coil and other turns 2,

3 …. n can be derived as shown in Eq. (5). Self-inductance of
the inner coil, L is expressed using the radius of the innermost
turn and width of the coil as shown in Eq. (6) [15].

Φ1 µ0  1 1 1
M= =  + + … +  π r12 (5)
I0 2  r2 r3 rn 
2 µD   32r1  
L=  ln   − 2.853  (6)
Fig. 1. Schematic of non-spiral circular planar microcoil [14]. π   w  

ratio for inducing equal peak flux density in both non-spiral

and spiral coils is found out. The results prove that non-spiral where µ is permeability of the coil material and D is diameter
planar microcoils are potential candidates to be used as mag- of the outermost turn of the coil. Finally, maximum flux den-
netic sensors to detect localized magnetic objects. sity at the inner coil is derived as:

2. Development of non-spiral micro coil model L+M 

Bmax = I 0  . (7)
A non-spiral coil of n turns considered for modeling as  AE 
shown in Fig. 1. Radius of the innermost coil turn is taken as
r1. Radius of ith turn is taken as ri. Let the coil width be w and Sensitivity is defined as the voltage generated across the
coil height be h. Intercoil spacing is represented as g. Inner coil per unit magnetic flux density. It is measured in
coil edges subtend an angle θ with the center. A sinusoidal Volt/Tesla. Resolution is calculated as the noise generated in
current of magnitude I0 and angular frequency ω is circulating the coil divided by its sensitivity, and its unit is Tesla/ Hz .
through the inner coil. The current supplied to the coil induces Sensitivity of the non-spiral coil (S) can be written as:
a magnetic field in the coil. Let Bmax be the maximum flux
density due to alternating current I0 sin (ωt) at the innermost Vmax  Volt 
turn of the non-spiral coil. S= = AEω  . (8)
Bmax  Tesla 
The radius ri of the ith turn can be calculated as shown in Eq.
(1).
Noise in the microcoil is given by 4kTRc Volt / Hz ,
where k is Boltzmann constant and Rc is the resistance of the
ri = r1 + ( i − 1)( w + g ) . (1)
microcoil. Therefore, Resolution (R) of the coil can be found
as:
The area of the microcoil (AE) is given by Eq. (2).

Noise 4kTRc
n
θ R= = Tesla / Hz . (9)
( )
AE = π ∑ r1 + ( i − 1)( w + g ) − ٛ π r12 .
2
(2) S AEω
1 360

Magnetic flux induced (Φ) can be written as the product of AE

3. Model validation
and time varying sinusoidal magnetic flux density Bmaxsin(ωt). A comparison between the developed model and the fabri-
A voltage is developed in the coil due to the induced field cation results from Ref. [13] is shown in Fig. 2. Types I, II and
whose maximum value can be designated as Vmax. Maxi- III are three different types of non-spiral coils considered for
mum flux density can be derived as in Eq. (3). comparison whose geometries are shown in Table 1. The de-
veloped analytical model matches well with fabrication results
Vmax though losses involved in the measurement of fabricated coil
Bmax = . (3)
ω AE parameters were not considered while developing the model.
 Krishnapriya S. et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (11) (2017) 5415~5421 5417

Table 1. Dimensions of microcoil for validating the model [13]. Table 2. Coil types for comparison between model and simulation.

Geometrical parameters (µm) Type I Type II Type III Geometrical parameters (µm) n=5 n = 10 n = 15
Width 150 100 50 Width 100 100 100
Spacing 100 100 100 Spacing 200 200 200
Inner diameter 2500 2500 2500 Inner radius 1000 1000 1000
Outer diameter 5000 4500 4000 Outer radius 2200 3700 5200

Fig. 2. Comparison between model and measurement results. Fig. 4. 1D view of magnetic flux distribution of non-spiral microcoil of
10 turns.

Fig. 5. Comparison between analytical and simulation results microcoil

of 10 turns.
Fig. 3. Analytical model based sensitivity and resolution vs equivalent
area of coil.

coil turn is taken as 1 µm. The cylindrical coordinate system is

Fig. 3 shows the plots of analytical sensitivity and resolu- adapted for representing the coil system. Centre of the coil
tion against equivalent area of coil obtained from the model system is positioned at r = 0 µm and z = 0 µm. Inner turn of
developed at an excitation frequency of 10 kHz. The two the coil starts from r-coordinate of 1000 µm and has a width
prominent figure of merits of planar micro coils namely reso- equal to 100 µm. The magnetic flux density along the radial
lution and sensitivity have conflicting operating conditions. and axial directions of turns is plotted.
Therefore only one can be achieved at a time. Fig. 4 shows the simulated radial field along the radial di-
rection at z = 100 µm. Induced magnetic field is maximum at
the coil edge of the innermost turn near to the center of coil
4. Simulation studies of non-spiral planar microcoil structure. Between the edges of a coil turn, field dips to a
Simulation studies of a ten turn non-spiral coil are done in minimum value due to current crowding at the turn edges.
COMSOL multiphysics. Dimensions for width, spacing and Field gradually decreases towards outer turns.
inner radius are set as shown in Table 2. The thickness of the Simulation is repeated for a various number of turns such as
5418 Krishnapriya S. et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (11) (2017) 5415~5421

Table 3. Optimized coil geometry of non-spiral planar circular coil.

Geometrical parameters Values in µm

Number of turns 5
Width 50
Spacing 50
Inner radius 100

Fig. 6. Magnetic flux density vs width of a non-spiral circular planar

microcoil.

5, 10, 15 and 20 and the results along radial direction are

compared with the analytical model. Analytical and simulated
results of peak magnetic flux density of a micro coil as a func-
tion of number of turns in the coil are compared in Fig. 5. This
result indicates that both the analytical model and simulation
match very accurately and correctly predict a decreasing mag- Fig. 7. Magnetic flux density vs spacing between adjacent turns of a
non-spiral circular planar microcoil.
netic field with the increasing number of turns for the non-
spiral planar coil. The peak magnetic flux decreases because,
in a non-spiral type coil, current distributes in parallel which is
not the case for a spiral coil.
In a non-spiral coil, the current that flows in the innermost
turn of the coil will be large when compared to other turns as
the innermost turn has the lowest resistance.
As the cross-section area of the metal lines in the coil is
same, lowest resistance in the innermost turn is due to its
smallest length. Therefore magnetic field induced is the high-
est at the inner coil.

5. Effect of geometrical parameters on the field gen-

erated
Fig. 8. Magnetic flux density vs radius of the innermost turn of a non-
A set of simulations is carried out to understand the effects spiral circular planar microcoil.
of various geometrical parameters of coil such as width (w),
spacing (g) and distance from the center (r1) on the magnetic
field generated by the coil. Excitation current is set as 500 mA The observation made on the effect of spacing on the coil
at a frequency of 10 KHz for the simulations. Copper is field is shown in Fig. 7. The behavior of magnetic field as the
chosen as the coil material due to its better electromigration number of turns of the coil varies already shown in Fig. 5. The
resistance properties [16]. Ten number of turns is considered effect of the radius of the inner coil on magnetic flux density
for the coil structure with a spacing of 200 µm arbitrarily set is also studied, and observations are shown in Fig. 8 keeping
between adjacent coil turns. The behavior of the field while the width and spacing between adjacent turn constant at 50
varying width is shown in Fig. 6. µm. Fig. 8 reveals that, as the microcoil turns are placed closer
Magnetic flux density decreases as the width of microcoil to the center, the magnetic field induced increases gradually.
increases as shown in Fig. 6. As the width of the coil is
increased, total effective length of the planar structure in-
6. Optimum coil geometry for microelectro mechani-
creases which leads to a reduction in self-inductance of the
cal sensor
coil. As a result, the flux density is also reduced. A similar
explanation can be given while spacing between adjacent Based on the observations made on the coil field with the
turns of the coil is varied. Width of the coil and inner coil variation of different coil parameters optimum coil geometry
radius are set as 50 µm and 1000 µm, respectively. is chosen to induce maximum flux density or magnetic field. It
 Krishnapriya S. et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (11) (2017) 5415~5421 5419

Table 4. Comparison between spiral and non-spiral coil geometries.

Electrical parameters of the coil Spiral Non-spiral

Peak magnetic flux density (mT) 16 12
Series ac resistance (Ohms) 0.3 0.0075
Coil inductance (nH) 7.7 0.5

Fig. 9. Magnetic field distribution in a non-spiral planar microcoil of

five turns of optimized geometry.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 11. Magnetic field distribution in spiral and non-spiral planar

microcoils of 10 turns with a peak flux density of 9.5 mT: (a) Distribu-
Fig. 10. Comparison between spiral and non-spiral coil regarding the tion in spiral coil; (b) distribution in non-spiral coil.
coil sensitivities.

7. Comparison with conventional spiral coil geometry

has been observed that reduction of various geometrical di-
mensions of the non-spiral coil leads to an improvement in the A comparison between spiral and non-spiral coils is sum-
magnetic field generated. Therefore, optimum coil geometry marized as shown in Fig. 10 and Table 4. Fig. 10 shows that
is chosen for the design of a MEMS electromagnetic sensor. for smaller number of turns non-spiral coil offers sensitivity
The corresponding coil dimensions are shown in Table 3. closer to that of spiral coils. Though magnitudes of field and
Simulation results for the optimized coil geometry is shown coil inductance are higher for spiral coil as shown in Table 4,
in Fig. 9. Maximum flux density gets induced near to the coil improvement in series resistance is an advantage for non-
center at the innermost coil edge. This is due to a nonhomoge- spiral coil as non-spiral coil structure is similar to a set of
neous distribution of current density through the coil conduc- short-circuited parallel conductors. Reduction in series resis-
tors. Non-spiral coil exhibits a peak flux density of 12 mT at tance implies a reduction in coil heating losses.
the innermost turn and a minimum of 1.5 mT at the outer turn The comparison results show that non-spiral coil can
as shown in Fig. 9. achieve a performance closer to that of conventional spiral
Current division rules are applicable for non-spiral coils. As coils for smaller number of turns with added advantages of
the innermost turns in a non-spiral coil possess less resistance reduction in process complexity and coil heating losses.
owing to its small length compared to outer turns, a majority A simulation experiment is carried out to determine the
of the excitation current reaches the inner turns. Therefore turns’ ratio in non-spiral to spiral planar microcoils for an
higher flux density and induced field are observed at the inner equal peak flux density in both of the coils as shown in Fig. 11.
turns compared to the outer turns. The excitation current is set as 500 mA at a frequency of 1
5420 Krishnapriya S. et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (11) (2017) 5415~5421

kHz. Width and spacing of the turns are fixed to be 50 µm. It

References
was found that a 10-turn spiral coil can generate a maximum
flux density of 9.5 mT with the radius of the innermost turn of [1] W. P. Wu, R. S. Lu, X. L. Zhou and Z. H. Ni, The nuclear
the coil is 1000 µm as shown in Fig. 11(a). Excitation input is magnetic resonance probe based on a printed circuit board
kept fixed. An equal peak flux density was observed for a planar microcoil, IEEE International Conference on Applied
non-spiral coil consisting of 4 turns as in the former case as Superconductivity and Electromagnetic Devices (ASEMD),
shown in Fig. 11(b). Therefore, the turns' ratio for equal peak IEEE (2013) 169-172.
flux density in non-spiral to spiral coil is found to be 4:10 [2] W. Wu, R. Lu, X. Zhou, Y. Zhang and Z. Ni, Low field
which shows another advantage of non-spiral coils over the NMR micro coils based on printed circuit board technology,
spiral planar coil. Non-spiral coil with lesser number of turns Science China Technological Sciences, 57 (10) (2014) 2082-
can generate same peak flux density as that of a spiral coil 2088.
with more number of turns. [3] A. Beyzavi and N.-T. Nguyen, Modeling and optimization
of planar microcoils, J. Micromechanics Microengineering,
18 (9) (2008) 095018.
8. Conclusions
[4] J. O. Fava and M. C. Ruch, Calculation and sim-ulation of
An analytical model for maximum flux density, sensitivity impedance diagrams of planar rectangular spiral coils for
and resolution is developed in this work for non-spiral planar eddy current testing, NDT and E International, 39 (5) (2006)
circular microcoil for magnetic sensing applications. Model is 414-424.
validated using existing fabrication results. Analytical sensi- [5] J. E. Stocker, T. L. Peck, A. G. Webb, M. Feng and R. L.
tivity and resolution of the coil are derived and plotted as Magin, Nanoliter volume, high-resolution NMR microspec-
functions of equivalent area of the coil. Behavior of the non- troscopy using a 60-/spl mu/m planar microcoil, IEEE
spiral coil is also studied based on various geometrical pa- Transactions, 44 (11) (1997) 1122-1127.
rameters of the coil. Magnetic field induced in the non-spiral [6] H. Takahashi, T. Dohi, K. Matsumoto and I. Shimoyama, A
coil is found to increase with decrease in the geometrical pa- micro planar coil for local high resolution magnetic res-
rameters which turns out to be an advantage for microsensors. onance imaging, MEMS (2007) 549-552.
Optimized coil geometry is derived to yield maximum flux [7] C. Massin, C. Boero, F. Vincent, J. Abenhaim, P. A. Besse
density from the coil. and R. S. Popovic, High-Q factor RF planar micro-coils for
Comparison performed between spiral and non-spiral coils micro-scale NMR spectroscopy, Sensors and Actuators
shows that series resistance of non-spiral coil is lesser com- A :Physical, 97-98 (2008) 280-288.
pared to the conventional spiral type coils at the cost of a [8] T. L. Peck, R. L. Magin, J. Kruse and M. Feng, NMR mi-
slight reduction in the magnetic field produced. Reduction in crospectroscopy using 100 m planar RF-coils fabricated on
series resistance indicates lesser coil heating losses. Simula- gallium-arsenide substrates, IEEE Transactions on Biomedi-
tion studies show that the turns' ratio for equal peak flux den- cal Engineering, 41 (7) (1994) 706-709.
sity in non-spiral to spiral coil is 4:10. Considering fabrication [9] B. Eyre, S. J. P. Kristofer and W. Gekelman, Multiaxis mi-
of non-spiral planar microcoils, metallization and lithography crocoil sensors in standard CMOS, Micromachining and Mi-
efforts are also lesser compared to that of spiral planar coils. crofabrication, International Society for Optics and Photon-
Therefore non-spiral coil can be a better alternative than the ics (1995) 183-191.
conventional spiral planar microcoils for magnetic sensing [10] S. Eroglu, G. Friedman and R. L. Magin, Estimate of
applications. Losses and signal-to-noise ratio in planar inductive micro-
coil detectors used for NMR, IEEE Transactions on Magnet-
ics, 37 (2001).
Acknowledgements
[11] R. E. Pawinanto et al., Finite element analysis on magnetic
The authors would like to acknowledge National Program force generation of electromagnetic microactuator for mi-
on Micro and Smart Systems (NPMaSS) for proving fund for cropump, Micro and Nanoelectronics (RSM), IEEE Regional
purchasing the licensed version of COMSOL Multiphysics Symposium (2013).
5.2a using which the simulation studies of planar microcoils [12] R. E. Pawinanto, J. Yunas, B. Y. Majlis, B. Bais and M. M.
were performed. Said, Fabrication and testing of electromagnetic MEMS mi-
croactuator utilizing PCB based planar micro-coil, ARPN
Nomenclature------------------------------------------------------------------------ Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 10 (18) (2015)
8399-8403.
B : Magnetic flux density [13] R. E. Pawinanto, J. Yunas, M. M. Noor and B. Y. Majlis,
L : Self inductance Design and fabrication of PCB based planar micro-coil for
M : Mutual inductance magnetic MEMS actuator, IEEE International Conference
S : Sensitivity on Semiconductor Electronics (ICSE) (2014) 487-490.
R : Resolution [14] S. Krishnapriya, R. S. Komaragiri and K. J. Suja, Signifi-
 Krishnapriya S. et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (11) (2017) 5415~5421 5421

cance of non-spiral planar microcoils over spiral coils for Rama Komaragiri is presently working
biomedical applications, IEEE-ICEE, IIT Bombay, India as Professor and Head of the Depart-
(2016). ment Electronics and Communication
[15] C. R. Neagu et al., Characterization of a planar micro-coil Engineering at Bennett University. Dr.
for implantable microsystems, Sensors and Actuators A: Komaragiri’s research interests are in
Physical, 62 (1) (1997) 599-611. the areas of MEMS/NEMS Sensors,
[16] C. S. Hau-Riege, An introduction to Cu electro-migration, Semiconductor device modelling and
Microelectronic Reliability, 44 (2) (2004) 195-205. simulation and Low-power CMOS
VLSI circuit design.
Krishnapriya S. is a Ph.D. scholar in
Department of Electronics & Communi- Suja K. J. is presently working as
cation, National Institute of Technology Assistant Professor in the Department
Calicut, India. She received her Master’s Electronics and Communication Engi-
degree from the same institution in neering at NIT Calicut, India. Dr. Suja’s
Microelectronics and VLSI technology. research interests are in the areas of
Her research interests are in the areas of modelling, simulation and characteri-
modelling and simulation of MEMS sation of MEMS Sensors and Semicon-
Sensors and semiconductor devices. ductor devices.