industry news
Subscribe Now

Paragraf Partners with CERN to Demonstrate Unique Properties of Paragraf’s New Graphene Hall Effect Sensor

Paragraf has embarked on a working partnership with the Magnetic Measurement section at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to demonstrate how new opportunities for magnetic measurements are opened up through the unique properties of its graphene sensor, particularly its negligible planar Hall effect.
CERN operates the largest particle accelerators in the world, for example its 27-km long, Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which straddles the border between Switzerland and France near Geneva. Physicists look at how our world is built at the fundamental level by colliding sub-atomic particles in particle accelerators that rely on large numbers of normal and superconducting magnets to steer and focus the particle beam to their collision points.

The Magnetic Measurements section at CERN is in charge of testing magnets for these accelerators using the latest-available techniques and instruments. High precision and reliable measurements are performed for many of CERN’s ongoing projects, and therefore the team is always on the lookout for new sensors and transducers for improving their measurement methods and accuracy.

Simon Thomas, CEO at Paragraf commented: “This collaboration with CERN demonstrates the potential of graphene-based Hall effect sensors to improve accuracy in magnetic measurement applications. Our Hall effect sensors address key challenges CERN is facing in mapping magnetic fields, namely: highly accurate measurements of local field distributions in accelerator magnets, while eliminating artefacts and reducing uncertainties stemming from the sensors.”

Existing Hall effect sensors all exhibit planar Hall effects where field components which are not perpendicular to the sensing plane produce false signals. This is because the sensing layer is effectively three-dimensional, with some amount of depth. These false signals, together with the non-linear response to the field strength, increase the measurement uncertainty and thus limit the application of Hall sensors. Separating the true signals from the systematic errors is a complex and time-consuming process.

Why CERN Chose Paragraf’s Hall effect Sensor

The Hall effect sensor from Paragraf solves these problems because the active sensing component is made of atomically thin graphene, which is therefore two-dimensional, and hence truly only senses magnetic fields along one direction; giving a negligible planar Hall effect. This enables the true perpendicular magnetic field value to be obtained, allowing for higher precision mapping of the local magnetic field.

“Using Hall effect sensors without planar effect would open the door to a new mapping technique by mounting a stack of sensors on a rotating shaft. The compelling advantage would be measurements of the harmonic content in accelerator magnets almost point-like along the magnet axis”, commented Stephan Russenschuck, head of the magnetic measurement section at CERN.

One of the other key properties of Paragraf’s Hall effect sensor is its wide temperature range from +80°C down to cryogenic temperatures of 1.5 Kelvin. For CERN, this means that fields inside the superconducting magnets could be measured with high accuracy, using sensors operating in liquid helium temperature ranges (below -269 °C, 4 Kelvin, -452 °F) where the calibration of sensors is less than trivial.

What’s Next

CERN’s Magnetic Measurement section is looking to perform more in-depth tests on the Hall effect sensors, with the eventual aim of using them to build a novel mapping system for magnetic fields.

Paragraf and CERN will also be releasing a joint white paper communicating the work to date in more detail and showcasing the lack of planar Hall effect in Paragraf’s sensors, as well as detailing its high performance across a range of magnetic fields.
Paragraf’s graphene Hall effect sensors are available to lead partners in small volumes. To discuss specific requirements, contact hallsensors@paragraf.com.

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Sep 21, 2023
Wireless communication in workplace wearables protects and boosts the occupational safety and productivity of industrial workers and front-line teams....
Sep 21, 2023
Labforge is a Waterloo, Ontario-based company that designs, builds, and manufactures smart cameras used in industrial automation and defense applications. By bringing artificial intelligence (AI) into their vision systems with Cadence , they can automate tasks that are diffic...
Sep 21, 2023
At Qualcomm AI Research, we are working on applications of generative modelling to embodied AI and robotics, in order to enable more capabilities in robotics....
Sep 21, 2023
Not knowing all the stuff I don't know didn't come easy. I've had to read a lot of books to get where I am....
Sep 21, 2023
See how we're accelerating the multi-die system chip design flow with partner Samsung Foundry, making it easier to meet PPA and time-to-market goals.The post Samsung Foundry and Synopsys Accelerate Multi-Die System Design appeared first on Chip Design....

Featured Video

Chiplet Architecture Accelerates Delivery of Industry-Leading Intel® FPGA Features and Capabilities

Sponsored by Intel

With each generation, packing millions of transistors onto shrinking dies gets more challenging. But we are continuing to change the game with advanced, targeted FPGAs for your needs. In this video, you’ll discover how Intel®’s chiplet-based approach to FPGAs delivers the latest capabilities faster than ever. Find out how we deliver on the promise of Moore’s law and push the boundaries with future innovations such as pathfinding options for chip-to-chip optical communication, exploring new ways to deliver better AI, and adopting UCIe standards in our next-generation FPGAs.

To learn more about chiplet architecture in Intel FPGA devices visit https://intel.ly/45B65Ij

featured paper

An Automated Method for Adding Resiliency to Mission-Critical SoC Designs

Sponsored by Synopsys

Adding safety measures to SoC designs in the form of radiation-hardened elements or redundancy is essential in making mission-critical applications in the A&D, cloud, automotive, robotics, medical, and IoT industries more resilient against random hardware failures that occur. This paper discusses the automated process of implementing the safety mechanisms/measures (SM) in the design to make them more resilient and analyze their effectiveness from design inception to the final product.

Click here to read more

featured chalk talk

Enable Sustainable Enterprises of the Future
Did you know that buildings are responsible for 40% of global energy consumption and 33% of greenhouse gas emissions? One way we can help both modernize and increase sustainability in our buildings is by adding 10BASE-T1L to our building controllers. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Salem Gharbi from Analog Devices about how we can enable sustainable enterprises with ethernet connected building controllers. They examine the10BASE-T1L flexible design solutions that Analog Devices offers, how exiting?building infrastructure can take advantage of 10BASE-T1L and how you can get started on your next sustainable enterprise journey.
Dec 20, 2022
33,545 views