This paper reports a novel micro-fluxgate sensor based on a double-layer magnetic core of a Fe–Co–B-based amorphous ribbon. The melt-spinning technique was carried out to obtain a Fe–Co–B-based amorphous ribbon composite of Fe_58.1Co_24.9B₁₆Si₁, and the obtained amorphous ribbon was then annealed at 595 K for 1 h to benefit soft magnetic properties. The prepared ribbon showed excellent soft magnetic behavior with a high saturated magnetic intensity (B_s) of 1.74 T and a coercivity (H_c) of less than 0.2 Oe. Afterward, a micro-fluxgate sensor based on the prepared amorphous ribbon was fabricated via microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology combined with chemical wet etching. The resulting sensor exhibited a sensitivity of 1985 V/T, a wide linearity range of ±1.05 mT, and a perming error below 0.4 μT under optimal operating conditions with an excitation current amplitude of 70 mA at 500 kHz frequency. The minimum magnetic field noise was about 36 pT/Hz^1/2 at 1 Hz under the same excitation conditions; a superior resolution of 5 nT was also achieved in the fabricated sensor. To the best of our knowledge, a compact micro-fluxgate sensor with such a high-resolution capability has not been reported elsewhere. The microsensor presented here with such improved characteristics may considerably enhance the development of micro-fluxgate sensors.

In this study, we describe an innovative micro-fluxgate immunosensor based on superparamagnetic Dynabeads for the detection of cardiac troponin T (cTnT), an important biomarker for cardiovascular diseases. The fluxgate sensor developed in this study uses a double layer of Co-based amorphous ribbons as a sensing element and three-dimensional solenoid copper coils to control the sensitive core. The system was fabricated through a standard micro-fabrication process, including thick photoresist lithography and electroplating. Superparamagnetic Dynabeads were employed as recognition tags and double polyclonal antibody pairs combined using streptavidin–biotin binding were employed to specifically capture and label the cTnT coupled with magnetic beads on a separate Au film-coated wafer via a classical sandwich immunoassay process. Series optimization of the assay parameters was performed to achieve optimal detection parameters. Under optimal conditions, the detection and quantification of cTnT was performed by sensing the magnetic signal of the cTnT-labeled Dynabeads with the micro-fluxgate sensor. The resulting biosystem successfully detected cTnT with satisfactory sensitivity, reproducibility, stability, and specificity. A minimum detectable limit of 0.01 ng mL⁻¹ was achieved with a linearity range of 0.01–10 ng mL⁻¹, demonstrating the high sensitivity of this novel system. In addition to the superior detection performance, the proposed sensor is convenient to manipulate, entirely lab-free, provides a quick result, and is portable. These factors suggest that this system has the potential to be applied as a point-of-care diagnostic tool for cardiovascular disease.

A sensitive and innovative assay system based on a micro-MEMS-fluxgate sensor and immunomagnetic beads-labels was developed for the rapid analysis of C-reactive proteins (CRP). The fluxgate sensor presented in this study was fabricated through standard micro-electro-mechanical system technology. A multi-loop magnetic core made of Fe-based amorphous ribbon was employed as the sensing element, and 3-D solenoid copper coils were used to control the sensing core. Antibody-conjugated immunomagnetic microbeads were strategically utilized as signal tags to label the CRP via the specific conjugation of CRP to polyclonal CRP antibodies. Separate Au film substrates were applied as immunoplatforms to immobilize CRP-beads labels through classical sandwich assays. Detection and quantification of the CRP at different concentrations were implemented by detecting the stray field of CRP labeled magnetic beads using the newly-developed micro-fluxgate sensor. The resulting system exhibited the required sensitivity, stability, reproducibility, and selectivity. A detection limit as low as 0.002 μg/mL CRP with a linearity range from 0.002 μg/mL to 10 μg/mL was achieved, and this suggested that the proposed biosystem possesses high sensitivity. In addition to the extremely low detection limit, the proposed method can be easily manipulated and possesses a quick response time. The response time of our sensor was less than 5 s, and the entire detection period for CRP analysis can be completed in less than 30 min using the current method. Given the detection performance and other advantages such as miniaturization, excellent stability and specificity, the proposed biosensor can be considered as a potential candidate for the rapid analysis of CRP, especially for point-of-care platforms.

The disturbing effect of the stray magnetic fields of Fe-based amorphous ribbons on the giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) sensor has been investigated systematically in this paper. Two simple methods were used for examining the disturbing effect of the stray magnetic fields of ribbons on the GMI sensor. In order to study the influence of the stray magnetic fields on the GMI effect, the square-shaped amorphous ribbons were tested in front, at the back, on the left and on the top of a meander-line GMI sensor made up of soft ferromagnetic films, respectively. Experimental results show that the presence of ribbons in front or at the back of GMI sensor shifts the GMI curve to a lower external magnetic field. On the contrary, the presence of ribbons on the left or on the top of the GMI sensor shifts the GMI curve to a higher external magnetic field, which is related to the coupling effect of the external magnetic field and the stray magnetic fields. The influence of the area and angle of ribbons on GMI was also studied in this work. The GMI sensor exhibits high linearity for detection of the stray magnetic fields, which has made it feasible to construct a sensitive magnetometer for detecting the typical stray magnetic fields of general soft ferromagnetic materials.