Magnetic field sensors for the industrial automation

The simple noncontacting detection of position plays a major role in the automation technique. Especially for the application in production plants, a high level of quality, reliability and durability is an absolute necessity. In this environment, the use of magnetic field sensors for detecting the position of a permanent magnet is at first glance a very well known and solved physical problem, but with respect to the economic reality it places major demands on existing manufacturing technologies. In developing magnetic switches, one has to consider different interfaces in order to achieve the important aim to avoid undefined switching states under worst case assumptions and to minimize the overall size of the sensor, including the electronics. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.