Innovative Differential Hall Effect Gap Sensor through Comparative Study for Precise Magnetic Levitation Transport System

Abstract

Three types of gap sensors, a capacitive gap sensor, an eddy current gap sensor, and a Hall effect gap sensor are described and evaluated through experiments for the purpose of precise gap sensing for micrometer scale movement, and a novel type of differential hall effect gap sensor is proposed. Each gap sensor is analyzed in terms of resolution and environment dependency including temperature dependency. Furthermore, a transport system for AMOLED deposition is introduced as a typical application of gap sensors, which are recently receiving considerable attention. Based on the analyses, the proposed differential Hall effect gap sensor is found to be the most suitable gap sensor for precise gap sensing, especially for application to a transport system for AMOLED deposition. The sensor shows resolution of 0.63 mV/μm for the overall range of the gap from 0 mm to 2.5 mm, temperature dependency of 3 μm/°C from 20°C to 30°C, and a monotonic characteristic for the gap between the sensor and the target.