Novel nested saddle coils used in miniature atomic sensors

Abstract

A novel uniform magnetic field coil structure with two pairs of saddle coils nested is proposed in order to minish the aspect ratio without losing much field uniformity, which is significant in innovative miniature atomic instruments and sensors. Optimal configuration parameters are obtained from the Taylor expansion of the magnetic field. The remainder terms are used to estimate the field uniformity and optimize the configuration while minishing computation time. Compared with traditional saddle coils, the nested saddle coils have unique advantages in miniature applications where the aspect ratios are strictly limited. The optimized nested saddle coils were manufactured by Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) technology and the magnetic field uniformities were verified experimentally using a flux-gate magnetometer. Furthermore, the example application of a miniature nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) gyro demonstrates the practical use of the nested coils.