Patent ID: 9267816
Filing Date: 2016-02-23
CPC Classification: G01B,G01C,G01D,G01R,G11C

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus, comprising: a plurality of circuits, each of the plurality of circuits including multiple magnetic tunnel junctions, each magnetic tunnel junction including a storage layer having a storage magnetization and a sense layer having a sense magnetization, each magnetic tunnel junction being configured such that the sense magnetization and a resistance of each magnetic tunnel junction vary in response to an external magnetic field, wherein the external magnetic field originates outside the apparatus and the sense magnetization direction and the resistance of each magnetic tunnel junction vary based upon the external magnetic field; and a module configured to determine a characteristic of the external magnetic field based on a parameter of each of the plurality of circuits, wherein the parameter of each of the plurality of circuits varies based on a combined resistance of the multiple magnetic tunnel junctions, the module being implemented in at least one of a memory or a processing device; wherein an operating point of each of the plurality of circuits is configured such that for a first subset of the multiple magnetic tunnel junctions, the sense magnetization is substantially aligned with the storage magnetization at the operating point, and for a second subset of the multiple magnetic tunnel junctions, the sense magnetization is substantially anti-aligned with the storage magnetization at the operating point.