This work studies the effects of an aluminum covering on the performance of cross-like Hall devices. Four different Hall sensor structures of various sizes were designed and fabricated. The sensitivity and offset of the Hall sensors, two key points impacting their performance, were characterized using a self-built measurement system. The work analyzes the influences of the aluminum covering on those two aspects of the performance. The aluminum layer covering mainly leads to an eddy-current effect in an unstable magnetic field and an additional depletion region above the active region. Those two points have influences on the sensitivity and the offset voltage, respectively. The analysis guides the designer whether to choose covering with an aluminum layer the active region of the Hall sensor as a method to reduce the flicker noise and to improve the stability of the Hall sensor. Because Hall devices, as a reference element, always suffer from a large dispersion, improving their stability is a crucial issue.
Keywords: aluminum covering; cross-like Hall sensor; offset voltage; sensitivity.