Patent Publication Number: US-9891295-B2

Title: Sensor device and sensor arrangement

Description:
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/299,563 filed on Jun. 9, 2014, the contents of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     Embodiments relate to a sensor device and a sensor arrangement. 
     BACKGROUND 
     In many applications, systems, components and devices have to be designed in view of partially contradicting goals and aspects. Among those are, for instance, technical feasibility, accuracy, reliability, efficiency, producability and more economically oriented aspects including, for instance, production and/or operation costs. These and further aspects may have to be considered and balanced out when designing a specific device, a component for a larger system or a whole system. 
     Examples come from all fields of technology where, for instance, sensors are used to detect and monitor environmental parameters, operational parameters and other physical, chemical or biological quantities. The previously-mentioned goals and aspects are typically considered on all levels of designing a complex system. In other words, not only on the system-level, but also on a component- and device-based level, partially contradicting goals and aspects will have to be considered. Moreover, between the different levels, typically an interchange exists. The less effort on one level is spent, the more attention has to be typically paid to details on other levels. 
     For instance, in the component of a system comprising one or more devices, simplifying the properties and features of the device may lead to a more complicated implementation of the devices into the component. 
     In the field of sensor-related applications, it may be interesting to implement not just a single sensor device, but a plurality of sensor devices for different reasons, for instance, to enhance an accuracy of the measurement. However, to influence the previously-mentioned goals and aspects, simplifying a sensor device at least to some extent may appear to be a viable option. However, implementing such a sensor device may become more difficult and influence the previously-mentioned goals and aspects of the component itself or other parts thereof. For instance, the electrical connections to supply the individual sensor devices with electrical energy and to allow information carrying signals to be at least in one direction sent may become more difficult. 
     SUMMARY 
     Therefore, a demand exists to provide a sensor arrangement and a sensor device allowing an easier implementation. 
     A sensor arrangement according to an embodiment comprises a board comprising a plurality of conductive lines of a first type, a plurality of conductive lines of a second type different from the conductive lines of the first type, and a recess. It further comprises a plurality of sensor devices mechanically accommodated on a main surface of the board and arranged around the recess, each sensor device being electrically coupled to the conductive lines of the first type and at least to one of the conductive lines of the second type, wherein each conductive line of the second type electrically couples a sensor device with at least one other item different from the sensor devices of the plurality of sensor devices, wherein a projection of the conductive lines of the first and second types perpendicular to the main surface is crossing-free, and wherein each conductive line of the first type electrically couples at least all of the plurality of sensor devices. 
     A sensor device according to an embodiment comprises a magnetic field sensitive element comprising at least two electrical supply terminals and at least one output terminal, wherein the device is subdividable by an intersecting plane into a first portion and a second portion such that the centroids of all of the contact areas of the electrical supply terminals are arranged in the second portion. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Several embodiments of the present invention will be described in the enclosed figures. 
         FIG. 1  shows a schematic overview of a sensor device according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 2  shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 3  shows a schematic block diagram of a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 4  shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 5  shows a circuit diagram of a half-bridge circuit; 
         FIG. 6  shows a circuit diagram of a full-bridge circuit; 
         FIG. 7  shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device according to an embodiment comprising two half-bridge circuits; 
         FIG. 8  shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device comprising a full-bridge circuit; 
         FIG. 9  shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device comprising two full-bridge circuits; 
         FIG. 10 a    shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment comprising three SMD sensor devices; 
         FIG. 10 b    shows the schematic plan view of  FIG. 10 a    without the three SMD sensor devices; 
         FIG. 10 c    shows a perspective view of a SMD-package of sensor device with leads according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 10 d    shows a perspective view of a SMD-package of sensor device with leads according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 10 e    shows a perspective view of a SMD-package of sensor device with lands according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 11 a    shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment comprising three SMD sensor devices, each accommodating two half-bridge circuits of AMR sensor elements; 
         FIG. 11 b    shows the schematic plan view of  FIG. 11 a    without the three SMD sensor devices; 
         FIG. 12 a    shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment comprising three SMD sensor devices, each accommodating two half-bridge circuits of AMR sensor elements; 
         FIG. 12 b    shows the schematic plan view of  FIG. 12 a    without the three SMD sensor devices; 
         FIG. 13 a    shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment comprising three sensor devices comprising each two full-bridge circuits; 
         FIG. 13 b    shows the schematic plan view of  FIG. 13 a    without the three SMD sensor devices; 
         FIG. 14  shows a perspective view of a sensor system comprising a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 15  shows a perspective view of a further sensor system comprising a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 16  shows a cross-sectional view of the sensor system of  FIG. 15 ; 
         FIG. 17  shows a perspective view of a further sensor system comprising a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 18  shows a perspective view of a sensor system comprising a further sensor arrangement according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 19 a    shows a simplified layout of a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 19 b    shows a simplified layout of a sensor device according to an embodiment, which may be used in the sensor arrangement of  FIG. 19   a;    
         FIG. 20 a    shows a simplified plan view of a sensor arrangement according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 20 b    shows the sensor arrangement of  FIG. 20 a    without the sensor devices; 
         FIG. 21 a    shows a simplified diagram of a sensor device according to a further embodiment; and 
         FIG. 21 b    shows the plan view of  FIG. 21 a    without the sensor devices. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in more detail. In this context, summarizing reference signs will be used to describe several objects simultaneously or to describe common features, dimensions, characteristics, or the like of these objects. The summarizing reference signs are based on their individual reference signs. Moreover, objects appearing in several embodiments or several figures, but which are identical or at least similar in terms of at least some of their functions or structural features, will be denoted with the same or similar reference signs. To avoid unnecessary repetitions, parts of the description referring to such objects also relate to the corresponding objects of the different embodiments or the different figures, unless explicitly or—taking the context of the description and the figures into account—implicitly stated otherwise. Therefore, similar or related objects may be implemented with at least some identical or similar features, dimensions, and characteristics, but may be also implemented with differing properties. 
     As will be laid out in more detail below, a practical relevance of an embodiment may be a cost-efficient sensor system, which uses several chips arranged around a center. In order to achieve low over-all costs, it may be advisable to implement chips being comparably cheap. This, however, may mean that it may be advisable to use chips or devices having no active electronic devices like transistors, but only comparably simple magneto-resistors or similar sensor elements. As a consequence, the chips might not comprise a typical number of, for instance, about 20 levels or layers of a CMOS/BiCMOS (CMOS=complementary metal oxide semiconductor; BiCMOS=Bipolar CMOS) semiconductor structure, but only a few levels/layers needed to be patterned and contacted to provide sensor elements such as magneto-resistors. 
     However, embodiments are by far not limited to low-cost systems or systems comprising only low-complexity devices or systems employing magnetic sensor elements. Embodiments may come from all areas of technology. Only to keep the following description brief and concise, the main focus will be laid on magnetic sensor applications and magneto-resistive sensor elements. 
       FIG. 1  shows a schematic overview of a device  100  according to an embodiment. The device  100  comprises at least two supply terminals  110 - 1 ,  110 - 2  to provide the device  100  with a electrical energy to operate the device  100 . Via the supply terminals  110  the device  100  can be supplied with electrical energy by providing, for instance, a negative supply voltage and a positive supply voltage to the supply terminals  110 - 1 ,  110 - 2 , respectively, or vice-versa. In the following description, the first supply terminal  110 - 1  will be considered the one to provide the negative supply voltage, while the second supply terminal  110 - 2  will be the one for the positive supply voltage. Naturally, the polarity of the supply voltages may be reversed or switched with respect to the terminals. Therefore, the supply terminals  110  may be designed to couple electrical energy at two different electrical potentials to the sensor device  100 . 
     The supply terminals  110  represent examples of terminals of a first type  115 , each of which may be electrically coupled to a conductive line coupling, for instance, a plurality of sensor devices  100  or other devices to a common electrical network node. Apart from the previously-mentioned supply terminals, further examples of such a terminal of a first type  115 , which is also referred to as a terminal of type A, may, for instance, comprise terminals to be coupled to a common clock line. In other words, terminals of different sensor devices  100  and, optionally, other circuits may be coupled to the same electrical network node. In other words, the corresponding terminals of, for instance, all devices  100  or all sensor devices  100 , may be interconnected by a conductive line such as a conductive trace, a conductive track, a corresponding wire or another electrical contact having a negligible electrical resistance compared to other resistive elements of the resulting circuitry. 
     Correspondingly, the signal lines to which the terminals of the first type  115  may be coupled, may be referred to as conductive lines of a first type. Examples will be described in more detail below. An electrical node may, for instance, comprise an electrical potential which is essentially the same for all terminals of the first type  115  for signals having a sufficiently low frequency such as DC or DC-like signals (DC=direct current). DC-like or signals having a sufficiently low frequency may, for instance, be signals having a frequency corresponding to a wavelength, which is substantially larger than an extension of the corresponding conductive line of the first type. This may enable to provide all terminals coupled to the respective common electrical network node with the same electrical potential essentially simultaneously. In other words, effects caused by a finite propagation velocity may be disregarded in such a situation. 
     Terminals of the first type  150  may be suitable to be provided with the same electrical potential during operation of the sensor device  100 . However, the terminals of the first type may also comprise all terminals necessary to supply the sensor device  100  with energy, a common system master clock, other common system signals for synchronization purpose or any combination thereof. 
     The device  100  further comprises at least one sensor signal output terminal  120  capable of providing a sensor signal to a further component outside the device  100 . The sensor signal output terminal  120  may be used to fulfill further functions and tasks in embodiments of a device  100  than to provide the sensor signal. The sensor signal output terminal  120  may, for instance, also be used to receive other sensor signals from other devices, to provide or to receive other information carrying signals such as control signals, status signals, error signals, command signals to the device  100 , from the device  100 , or in both directions. 
     The sensor signal output terminals  120  represent an example of a terminal of a second type  125 . Each terminal of the second type  125  may be electrically coupled to a corresponding conductive line electrically coupling the respective sensor device  100  to an item, which is different from the sensor devices  100  or, in other words, none of any devices  100  comprised in a sensor arrangement as described below. Terminals  125  of the second type, which are also referred to as terminals of type B, electrically couple a specific terminal of the device  100  to other items or circuit elements excluding the same or a similar terminal in terms of their functions of one or more other devices  100 . Terminals of the second type  125  couple the respective terminal of the sensor device  100  to an electrical network node individual to the specific device  100  in terms of all the other devices  100 , when implemented. To this specific network node no other device  100  is directly electrically coupled. However, the terminal of the second type  125  may naturally be coupled to other circuit elements or items to allow obtain or provide, for instance, a signal at the respective terminal of the second type  125 . Examples of circuit elements and items comprise connectors, pins, resistors, transistors and other electrical and electronic devices and structures. To put it in different words, by electrically connecting or coupling two or more sensor devices  100  on a common component board such as a printed circuit board (PCB), the respective terminals of the second type  125  of different devices  100  are not coupled to a common electrical network node. For instance, each of the conductive lines of the first type may couple the sensor devices  100  to an electrical network node common to all of the sensor devices  100 , while each of the conductive lines of the second type may couple exactly one sensor device  100  to exactly one electrical network node individual to the respective sensor device. 
     An electrical network node may form, when two electrically conductive structures such as terminals of one or more devices  100 , other circuit elements or devices are electrically coupled by an electrically conductive structure such as a conductive line or trace, a wire or a similar wire-like electrical connection. As a consequence, the respective electrical components and, hence, the electrical network node, may share under ideal circumstances the same electrical potential. Depending on the electrical resistances involved, the lengths of the interconnecting electrical connections and other parameters, deviations in a real-life implementation may occur due to resistances, propagation velocities and other effects. 
     The conductive lines used to electrically couple the terminals of the first type and of the second type are referred to as conductive lines of the first and second type, respectively. 
     Mechanical components may be coupled to one another directly or indirectly via a further component. Electrical and other components can be coupled to one another directly or indirectly in such a way that information carrying or informing comprising signals can be interchanged or sent from one component to the other component. Moreover, electrical and other components can be electrically coupled directly or indirectly to provide them with electrical energy, for instance, by providing a supply voltage and a supply current to the respective components. 
     Information carrying signals or information comprising signals can be sent, provided or interchanged, for instance, using electrical, optical, magnetic or radio signals. The signals can be in terms of their values and their timely sequence independent from one another be discrete or continuous. For instance, the signals may be analog or digital signals. 
     The sensor device  100  may be arrangable such that the supply terminals  110  may be arranged closer to a reference point  130  outside the sensor device  100  than any signal output terminal of the device  100 . The reference point  130  may, for instance, lay on a reference direction or reference line of the sensor device  100 . Such a reference direction or reference line may, for instance, correspond to a predefined orientation direction for operating the device  100 . For instance, the reference direction may correspond to 0°-direction of an external magnetic field. It may, for instance, be determined by a device-internal structure and/or orientation of its sensor elements. However, it may also be the consequence of a device-internal manipulation of data provided by the sensor elements of the device  100 . In other words, the reference point  130  may lay on a predefined and/or device-specific measurement direction or measurement line. 
     As outlined before, depending on the concrete implementation of a sensor device  100 , the at least two supply terminals  110  may also be closer to or equally spaced from the reference point  130  than any of at least one of all sensor signal terminals of the sensor device  100  and all signal terminals for information carrying signals of the sensor device  100 , for instance, to receive, to send or to interchange control signals, status signals, error signals and/or command signals. 
     Naturally, the number of terminals may differ from the number of terminals shown in  FIG. 1 . For instance, the device  100  may comprise more than two supply terminals  110 , for instance, three, four or more terminals. Similarly, the number of sensor signal output terminals  120 , sensor signal terminals or signals for information carrying signals may also be larger than one. Examples will be shown and described in more detail below. To put it in more general terms, a sensor device  100  according to an embodiment may comprise more terminals of a first type  115  and, alternatively or additionally, more terminals of the second type than shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     The supply terminals  110  and the sensor signal output terminals  120  may be arranged and configured in such a way to establish an electrical connection or an electrical coupling to an external board in a common plane. The same may also be true for a device  100  for further terminals such as the previously-mentioned signal terminals and the signal terminals for information carrying signals. In such a case, the reference point  130  may, for instance, be located in the common plane and outside a projection of the sensor device  100  onto the common plane along a direction perpendicular to the common plane. 
     For instance, the device may be designed to be mountable to such an external board using a flip-chip-technique. In such a case, the device  100  may, for instance, comprise pads which may be metallized and arranged on the surface of a die or a chip of the device  100 . Onto the respective pads solder dots may be deposited which can then be used to solder the device  100  onto the external board. For instance, the terminals of the sensor device  100  may be arranged in such a way that in the case of employing the flip-chip-technique a mechanically stable configuration may be achieved allowing the device or chip to rest safely on its terminals. For instance, the terminals may be arranged to prevent the device from toppling or tilting. In other words, the terminals may be arranged in a pattern different from a single straight line. 
     Naturally, also other mounting techniques may be used. For instance, the device  100  may comprise a housing  140  to form a leaded package or an unleaded SMD package (SMD=Surface Mountable Device). In the case of a leaded package, the corresponding external board may comprise holes through which the leads of the leaded package are put and in which the leads of the housing  140  are soldered. However, in the case of an unleaded SMD package, the housing  140  may comprise lands or other contact pins or terminals allowing the device  100  to be directly soldered onto the external board. 
     The reference point  130  may, for instance, be arranged in the common plane, in which the at least two supply terminals  110  and the signal output terminals  120  of the sensor device  100  are configured to be electrically coupled to the external board. Moreover, the reference point may be located outside a projection area of the sensor device  100  onto the common plane in a direction perpendicular to the common plane. Moreover, the reference point may also be located outside of a rectangular-shaped area in the common plane completely comprising the previously defined projection area of the device  100 . 
     The sensor device  100  may be implemented as a discrete device. A discrete device may be, for instance, contained within or formed on a single substrate, die or chip. It may also be distributed over several substrates, dies or chips with the substrates being arranged or contained in a single package. For instance, all parts of the discrete device may be manufactured in a single process sequence, such as a semiconductor wafer process to fabricate the discrete device. Sometimes, parts of the sensors may be manufactured after a typical microelectronic wafer manufacturing process. For instance, magnetic flux concentrators may be glued to a top of a wafer, diode chip or magneto-resistors may be sputtered on top of a wafer after the last interconnect layer has been manufactured. In order not to pollute the wafer fabrication these parts may be done immediately after the ordinary wafer process, yet these processing steps may still be closely linked to the wafer fabrication, particularly, if a final passivation layer protecting the circuit and other sensor elements is applied afterwards. 
     Another possible feature of a discrete device  100  may be that it has undergone a magnetic or other functional test, before it is assembled together into a more complex component. If such a test has been carried out, the individual parts that went through this test may be regarded as discrete devices. For instance, the test may comprise a simplified test procedure allowing verifying if the discrete device works and if its performance is in the expected limits. In other words, the test may be used to see if an additional calibration may be unnecessary, advisable or perhaps even necessary. However, it may be interesting to try to avoid an additional calibration to avoid implementing an additional memory or other storage cells to store the calibration data. This may, for instance, be avoided by using a set of discrete devices having similar properties and/or characteristics within a specified, application-specific margin. For instance, the discrete devices may be coupled to the same power source and/or be fabricated during the same process steps. 
     The at least two supply terminals  110 , the sensor signal output terminals  120 —and optionally the further terminals mentioned above—may be arranged in at least one row  150  of terminals. In the case of the sensor device  100  as shown in  FIG. 1 , the terminals  110 ,  120  are arranged in two rows  150 - 1 ,  150 - 2 . The rows are in this embodiment aligned to point approximately to the reference point  130 . Naturally, in other embodiments, the number of rows  150  may be different. For instance, a sensor device  100  may comprise only a single row or three or more rows  150 . The rows  150  of terminals may optionally be equally spaced. In such a case as, for instance, depicted in  FIG. 1 , the supply terminals  110  arranged in the same row  150  of terminals as any other sensor signal output terminal  120  are arranged closer to the reference point  130  than the corresponding sensor signal output terminals  120 . In the case of  FIG. 1 , the supply terminal  110 - 1  of row  150 - 2  is closer to the reference point  130  than the sensor signal output terminal  120 . 
     Naturally, the same also applies to more complicated sensor device layouts than the one shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     The sensor device  100  may be arrangable such that the at least two supply terminals  110  are closer to the reference point  130  than any of the at least one sensor output signal terminal  120  of the sensor device  100 . The at least two supply terminals  110  and the signal output terminals  120  of the sensor device  100  may be configured to be electrically coupled to an external board in a common plane. In this case, the reference point  130  may be located in the common plane and outside a projection of the sensor device  100  onto the common plane along a direction perpendicular to the common plane. 
     A sensor device  100  according to an embodiment may comprise at least one sensor element electrically coupled to at least one of the sensor signal output terminals  120  of the sensor device  100 . In such a case, the sensor device  100  may comprise a plurality of sensor elements electrically coupled to form at least one half bridge circuit comprising a series connection of at least two sensor elements and a node arranged between the at least two sensor elements, wherein the node is electrically coupled to at least one of the sensor signal output terminals of the sensor device, as will be outlined in more detail below. Additionally or alternatively, the at least one sensor element comprises at least one magnetic field sensor element. In such a case, the at least one magnetic field sensor element may comprise at least one of magneto-resistive sensor element, a Hall sensor element, a vertical Hall sensor element, and a magnetic field effect transistor. The magnetic field sensor element may optionally comprise a magnetically pinned layer. 
     In a sensor device  100  according to an embodiment, the at least one sensor element may be formed at least partially on or in a die, the die comprising a main surface, wherein the main surface is arranged essentially parallel to a common plane, in which the at least two supply terminals and the signal output terminals of the sensor device are configured to be electrically coupled to an external board. Naturally, a sensor device  100  according to an embodiment may comprise a plurality of sensor signal output terminals  120 . 
     The sensor device  100  may be sub-dividable by an intersecting plane  160  into a first portion  170 - 1  and a second portion  170 - 2 , such that the centroids  180  (geometrical center points) of the contact areas of all of the terminals of the second type  125  are arranged in the second portion  170 - 2 . Moreover, the centroids  180  of the contact areas of all but at most one of the terminals of the first type  115  may be arranged in the first portion  170 - 1 . To put it differently, in some embodiments, all terminals of the second type (type B terminals)  125 , which are or may be necessary to operate the sensor device  100 , may be located in the second portion  170 - 2 . 
     The terminals of the first and second types  115 ,  125  may be essentially arranged in a common plane as outlined before. The sensor device  100  may comprise in this case a projection onto the common plane of polygonal, rectangular or quadratic shape. Naturally, the sensor device  100  may comprise a sensor element, which may, for instance, comprise a magnetic sensor element. The magnetic sensor element in turn may optionally comprise a magnetically-pinned layer. 
     For instance, a sensor device  100  may comprise at least two supply terminals  110 , which may be designed to couple electrical energy at two different electrical potentials to the sensor device  100 , and at least one output signal terminal  120  that provides a sensor output signal. The sensor device  100  may further be configured to be mountable to a component board (not shown in  FIG. 1 ) with a single interconnect layer in such a way that a plurality of sensor devices  100  could be placed symmetrically around a perimeter of a hole in the component board, whereby all positive supply terminals  110  would be connected to a positive supply trace in the single interconnect layer of the component board, all negative supply terminals  110  would be connected to a negative supply trace in the single interconnect layer of the component board, and each output signal terminal  120  would be connected to its dedicated output signal trace in the single interconnect layer of the component board, whereby no two of the supply traces and the signal traces would be shorted. In other words, in a plan-view or in a projection along a direction perpendicular to the common plane mentioned before or a main surface of the die of the sensor device  100 , the conductive lines may be crossing-free. 
     Hence, as an example, all terminals of the first type  115  may be arranged at or on the package of the sensor device  100  such that several packages may be arranged around a hole or a recess in the component board such that the connecting lines coupled to all terminals of the first and second types  115 ,  125 , which are necessary for operating the sensor device  100 , can be designed to get close to an outer perimeter of the component board without any of the conductive lines crossing themselves or other conducting lines. To put it in different words, none of the conductive lines of the first type (type A conductive lines) cross conductive lines of the second type (type B conductive lines). 
       FIG. 2  shows a sensor arrangement  200  comprising a board  210  comprising at least two supply lines  220  and a plurality of signal lines  230  and a recess  240  with a reference point  130 . It further comprises a plurality of sensor devices  100  which are mechanically accommodated on the board  210  using the flip-chip technique. To be more exact, the sensor arrangement  200  as shown in  FIG. 2  comprises two sensor devices  100 - 1 ,  100 - 2 , but other sensor arrangements  200  may naturally comprise more sensor devices  100 . Each of the sensor devices  100  is electrically coupled to the at least two supply lines  220  and to at least one signal line  230  to provide a sensor signal to the at least one signal line. The at least two supply lines  220  are arranged radially inside of the plurality of signal lines  230  with respect to the reference point  130 . 
     The sensor devices  100  may, for instance, be implemented as a sensor device  100  depicted and described in the context of  FIG. 1 . In other words, the sensor devices  100  may comprise at least two supply terminals  110 - 1 ,  110 - 2  and at least one sensor signal output terminal  120 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , the sensor devices  100  may be arrangable such that the at least two supply terminals  110  may be closer to or equally spaced from the reference point  130  outside the sensor device  100  than any sensor signal output terminal  120  of the sensor device  100 . 
     In the sensor arrangement  200  as shown in  FIG. 2 , the board  210  comprises a plurality of conductive lines  225  and a plurality of conductive lines of the second type  235 . The previously-mentioned supply lines  220  are one example of the conductive lines of the first type  225 , each of which couples the sensor devices  100  of the sensor arrangement  200 —for instance all sensor devices  100  of the sensor arrangement  200 —to one electrical network node common to all of the sensor devices  100 . An example of the conductive lines of the second type  235  represent the previously-mentioned signal lines  230 , each of which couples exactly one sensor device  100  of the sensor device  200  to exactly one electrical node individual to the respective sensor device  100 . In other words, each conductive line of the second type  235  is electrically coupled to exactly one sensor device  100 . 
     Although in the embodiment shown in  FIG. 2 , only two sensor devices  100  are shown, in other embodiments more than two sensor devices may be implemented. In other words, the plurality of sensor devices  100  may in some embodiments comprise at least three sensor devices  100 . In a projection of the conductive lines of the first and second types  225 ,  235  perpendicular to the main surface of the board, on which the sensor devices  100  are mechanically accommodated, may be crossing-free. 
     As outlined before, the sensor devices  100  may be arranged around the recess  240  of the (component) board  210 , wherein the recess may optionally go through the board  210  in a direction perpendicular to the previously-mentioned main surface. The recess  240  may comprise a regular-shaped hole comprising a center point, which may coincide with a reference point  130 . The regular shape may be a circular shape, an elliptical shape or a polygonal shape. 
     In the example shown in  FIG. 2 , the sensor devices  100  may be oriented towards the reference point  130  such that by rotating the sensor arrangement  100  around the reference point  130  by an angle equal to an angle between two sensor devices  100  with respect to the reference point  130 , an orientation of at least one of the sensor devices  100  becomes identical to that of at least one of the two sensor devices  100  previously mentioned. To illustrate this in more detail, the terminals  110 - 1 ,  110 - 2 ,  120  are arranged in the example shown in  FIG. 2  on three concentric circles  250 - 1 ,  250 - 2 ,  250 - 3 , respectively, all having as a center point or midpoint the reference point  130  and, hence, the center point of the recess  240 . For instance, by rotating the sensor arrangement  200  by 180°, the sensor devices  100 - 1 ,  100 - 2  swap or exchange their positions and orientations. 
     In other words, the sensor devices  100  each comprise a predefined, device-specific orientation direction  260 . The sensor devices  100  are oriented with respect to the center point (reference point  130 ) such that the orientation direction  260  points towards the center point or reference point  130 . The sensor devices  100  may be oriented towards the center point (reference point  130 ) such that by rotating the sensor arrangement  200  around the center point by an angle equal to an angle between two of the sensor devices  100  with respect to the center point, an orientation of at least one of the sensor devices  100  becomes identical to that of the other one of the at least two sensor devices forming the plurality of sensor devices  100 . 
     The conductive lines of the first type  225  may be essentially arranged radially inside of the conducting lines of the second type  235  with respect to the recess  240 . Based on the center point or reference point  130 , the conductive lines of the first type  225  may be arranged closer to the center point than the conductive lines of the second type  235  with respect to a predefined cross-sectional plane perpendicular to the main surface of the board  210  and comprising a center axis being perpendicular to the main surface of the board  210  and comprising the center point or reference point  130 . For instance, the conductive lines of a first type  225  may be arranged radially inside of the conductive lines of the second type  235  with respect to at least 75% of all angles, along which at least one conductive line of the first type  225  and at least one conductive line of the second type  235  are arranged. In other embodiments, the previously-mentioned ratio of 75% may be higher, for instance, comprising, for instance, 85% or even 90%. In other embodiments the ratio may go up as high as 100% such that with respect to angles in a direction of which at least one conductive line of the first type  125  and at least one conductive line of the second type  235  are arranged, the conductive lines of the first type  225  are always closer to the center point than the conductive lines of the second type  235 . 
     Moreover, the sensor devices  100  are identical in the embodiment shown in  FIG. 2 . This may, for instance, simplify integration and manufacturing of the sensor arrangement  200 . 
     However, in other embodiments, the sensor devices  100  are not required to be identical. For instance, the sensor devices  100  each may comprise a predefined orientation direction  260 , which are implemented in terms of the sensor arrangement such that the orientation directions  260  of the plurality of sensor devices  100  point toward the reference point  130 . 
     In the case that the plurality of sensor devices  100  is equally spaced around the reference point  130 , by “rotating” the sensor device  100  around the center or reference point  130  by the angle between two neighboring devices (or an integer multiple thereof), the positions and orientations of all sensor devices  100  may stay the same. In other words, the sensor devices  100  of the sensor arrangement  200  may be rotation-invariant. 
     For instance, the at least two supply lines  220  and the plurality of signal lines  230  may comprise traces arranged in a single conductive layer of the board  210 . The conductive layer may, for instance, be fabricated from a metallic layer; thus it may also be referred to as metallization or interconnect layer. In some embodiments, all traces of the at least two supply lines  220  and of the plurality of signal lines may be arranged in the single conductive layer of the board  210 . Boards with single conductive layer may be cheaper and more robust than multi-layer boards. It may therefore be possible to implement the at least two supply lines  220  and the plurality of signal lines  230  cross-over-free. However, by implementing connectors, jumpers or the like, also non-cross-over-free implementations may be used at increased production costs and reduced reliability. 
     In other words, the conductive lines of the first type  225  and the conductive lines of the second type  235  may comprise traces arranged in a single conductive layer of the board  210 . In some embodiments, all traces of the conductive lines of the first and second types  225 ,  235  may be arranged in a single conductive layer of the board  210 . The board  210  may, for instance, comprise exactly a single conductive layer. 
     As will be laid out in more detail below, the recess  240  may further comprise an aperture connecting an outer perimeter of the board  210  and the hole previously mentioned. Such an example is, for instance, shown in  FIG. 3 . 
     A sensor device  100  according to an embodiment may enable an easier implementation of such a sensor device  100  into a more complex system or component such as a sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment. In the situation depicted in  FIG. 2 , it is possible by orienting the sensor devices  100  in such a way that the supply terminals  110  are placed radially inwards with respect to the sensor signal output terminal  120  to electrically connect or couple the supply lines  220  to the supply terminals  110  and one of the signal lines  230  to one of the sensor signal output terminals  120 . Here, the lines  220 ,  230  are arranged over the whole angle range in the previously-described manner. However, in different embodiments, it may be possible that due to implementing the connector another circuit element or circuit-related element that the radially inward arrangement of the supply lines  220  with respect to the signal lines  230  may only be valid inside an angular sector  270  comprising the plurality of sensor devices  100 . 
     As depicted in  FIG. 2 , the sensor devices  100  are arranged around the recess  240 , which has the shape of the circular hole with the reference point  130  being the center point or midpoint of the hole. In other words, the reference point  130  may coincide with a center point of the hole  280  or, in more general terms, coincide with a special point of the recess  240 . For instance, the sensor devices may be arranged on the component board  210  equidistantly with respect to the reference point  130 . However, the reference point  130  may be arranged inside the recess  240 . It is to be noted that in many embodiments the recess  240  is not arranged in such a way that the sensor devices cover the recess  240  or the hole  280 . In other words, the recess  240  is typically not designed to give a medium such as a gas, a liquid or another medium access to any of the sensor devices. The recess  240  may be designed to accommodate a cylindrical structure, for instance, a rotatable or movable magnet, a rotatable or movable shaft or a current carrying wire. 
     A sensor device  100  according to an embodiment may, hence, comprise at least two supply terminals  110 , which are designed to couple electrical energy at two different electrical potentials to the sensor device  100 , and at least one output signal terminal  120  that provides a sensor output signal. The sensor device  100  may further be configured to be mountable to a component board  210  with a single interconnect layer in such a way that a plurality of sensor devices  100  would be placed symmetrically around a perimeter of a hole  280  or a recess  240  in the component board  210 , whereby all positive supply terminals  110  would be connected to a positive supply trace in the single interconnect layer of the component board  210 , all negative supply terminals  110  would be connected to a negative supply trace in the single interconnect layer of the component board  210 , and each output signal terminal  120  would be connected to its dedicated output signal trace in the single interconnect layer of the component board  210 , whereby no two of the supply traces and the signal traces would be shorted. 
     A sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment may comprise a board  210  comprising at least two supply lines  220 , a plurality of signal lines  230  and a recess  240  with a reference point  130  or center point. It may further comprise a plurality of sensor devices  100  mechanically accommodated on the board  210 , each sensor device  100  being electrically coupled to the at least two supply lines  220  and to at least one signal line  230  to provide a sensor signal to the at least one signal line  230 , wherein the at least two supply lines  220  are arranged radially inside of the plurality of signal lines  230  with respect to the reference point  130  or the center point. Optionally, in a sensor arrangement  200  the at least two supply lines  220  and the plurality of signal lines  230  may comprise traces arranged in a single conductive layer of the board  210 . In some cases, even all traces of the at least two supply lines  220  and of the plurality of signal lines  240  may be arranged in the single conductive layer of the board  210 . 
     In a sensor arrangement  200 , the plurality of sensor devices  100  may be arranged around the recess  240  in the board  210 . Optionally, the recess  240  may comprises a hole  280  comprising the reference point  130  and an aperture  290  connecting an outer perimeter  300  of the board  210  and the hole  280 . 
     Optionally, the sensor devices  100  may each comprise a predefined orientation direction  260 , wherein the plurality of sensor devices  100  may then be oriented with respect to the reference point  130  such that the predefined orientation direction  260  points toward the reference point  130 . The sensor devices may further be oriented towards the reference point  130  such that by rotating the sensor arrangement  200  around the reference point  130  by an angle equal to an angle between two sensor devices  100  with respect to the reference point  130 , an orientation of at least one of the two sensor devices  100  becomes identical to the at least other one of the two sensor devices  100 . Optionally, the sensor devices  100  may be identical. 
     For instance, a sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment may comprise a board  210  comprising at least two supply lines  220 , at least three signal lines  230  and a hole  280  with a reference point  130 . It may further comprise at least three sensor devices  100  mechanically accommodated on the board  210  and oriented towards the reference point  130 , each sensor device  100  being electrically coupled to the at least two supply lines  220  by at least two supply terminals  110  of the sensor device  100  and to at least one signal line  230  by at least one sensor signal output terminal  230  to provide a sensor signal to the at least one signal line  230 . The sensor signal may be indicative of a magnetic field acting on the sensor device  100 , wherein the at least two supply lines  220  are arranged radially inside of the plurality of signal lines  230  with respect to the reference point  130 . The at least two supply terminals  120  may be closer to or equally spaced from the reference point  130  then any sensor signal output terminals  120  of the sensor device  100 . 
       FIG. 3  shows a further block diagram of a sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment in the form of a plan view of its component board  210 . It shows a plurality of sensor devices  100 , which are also referred to as sensor chips, arranged around a reference point  130  and mounted in a flip-chip style or technique to a component board  210 . The component board  210  comprises a recess  240  comprising a hole around a center point, which is identical to the reference point  130 . For instance, the sensor devices  100  or their chips and/or packages may be arranged in the case of a rectangular shape such that their longer sides are approximately oriented radially with respect to the center point  130 . As a consequence, the shorter sides of the sensor devices  100  may in this case be oriented approximately circumferentially. As a consequence, it may be possible to place more sensor devices  100  around the perimeter of the recess  240  or to reduce a diameter of a circle  250  on which the sensor devices  100  are arranged. 
     As will be laid out in more detail below, when the arrangement  200  is part of a magnetic current sensor, a conductor may go through the hole  280  perpendicularly to the board  210  and the current through this conductor can be measured by the magnetic sensor chips  100  via its associated magnetic field, provided the current is strong enough to create a magnetic field detectable by the sensor chips  100 . In case the arrangement  200  is part of an off-axis magnetic angle sensor, a shaft may go through the hole  280  perpendicularly to the board  210  with a permanent magnet attached to the shaft and the angular position of the shaft can be measured by the magnetic sensor chips  100 . 
     Optionally, the component board  210  may also comprise an aperture  290  connecting an outer perimeter  300  of the board  210  and the hole  280  with its reference point  130  so that the arrangement  200  can be installed more easily around the conductor or shaft without the need to pull it over the end of the conductor or shaft. 
     To provide the sensor chips  100  with their electric supply, the arrangement comprises at least two supply lines  220 , whereby all sensor chips  100  of the plurality of sensor chips  100  arranged around the hole  280  may use these supply lines  220  as common supply lines. The sensor chips  100  comprise at least one output terminal  120 , where the output signals of the sensor chips  100  can be tapped. A system comprising the arrangement  200  can sample or tap the sensor output signals of at least two sensor chips  100  via the appropriate signal lines  230 . 
     Implementing an embodiment of such an arrangement  200  may be interesting in the case when the sensor chips  100  cannot share common signal lines  230 . This may, for instance, be the case, when the sensor chips  100  are based on simple Wheatstone bridge circuits of magneto-resistors, whose output signal is a time-continuous voltage coupled to the sensor signal output terminal  120  of the sensor chip  100 . In this case, a common signal line shared by more than one sensor chip  100  might short the bridge circuits of different sensor chips  100  rendering the signals probably useless. Therefore, in such an example, it may be advisable to implement dedicated signal lines  230  for each sensor chip or—in other words—to implement the signal lines  230  such that each signal line  230  is coupled only to one sensor device  100  to provide the sensor signal to the respective signal line  230 . 
     This leads to a plurality of signal lines  230  being implemented, which typically require a lot of space on the component board  210 . In cases, when the reference point  130  is located inside the recess  240  or the hole of the component board  210 , the recess  240  may severely hamper the wiring of the sensor devices  100 . For instance, as will be laid out in more detail below, the recess  240  may be used to accommodate a magnet or a current-carrying wire of a larger system comprising the sensor arrangement  200 . However, in applications, it may be desirable to locate the sensor device  100  as close as possible to the reference point since the sensor signals obtainable by the sensor devices  100  may become larger and an overall size of the sensor arrangement may eventually be reducible. A sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment may help to overcome these contradictory design goals by providing ring-shaped supply lines around the reference point  130 , which may be closer to the recess  240  than the signal lines, which may be significantly larger in number. By using a sensor arrangement  200 , a designer may have more space to place the sensor lines  120  or—in more general terms—the conductive lines of the second type  235  outside the conductive lines of a first type  225 . 
     Due to a typical design of such an implementation, space is often available only to a very limited extent between the sensor chips  100  and the reference point  130  due to the hole  280  in the component board  210 , it may be more advisable to arrange the signal terminals  120  such that the signal lines  230  can be placed at larger radial distance than the supply lines  220  from the reference point  130 . At larger radial distance from the reference point  130  there is often more space available. This may result in the arrangement  200  of terminals  110 ,  120 , supply lines  220  and signal lines  230  as outlined above. Only some of the supply terminals  110  have been marked in  FIG. 3  by their reference sign for clarity reasons only. 
     Naturally, in other embodiments the sensor device  100  or sensor chips  100  may comprise more than just one sensor signal output terminal  120 . Hence, in these cases, the sensor devices  100  may comprise a plurality of sensor signal output terminals  120 . Naturally, the number of signal lines  230  may be equal to the total number of sensor signal output terminals  120  used by all sensor devices  100  of the arrangement  200 . 
     By using an embodiment, it may be possible to place the sensor chips  100  very close to the reference point  130 , since no extra space has to be reserved for conductor traces or lines  220 ,  230  on the board  210 . As a consequence, it may be possible to place the chips  100  right next to an inner perimeter  310  of the recess  240 , which may increases the signal strength of the sensor devices  100  due to a more intense interaction between the conductor or shaft or magnet attached to the shaft and the sensor elements of the devices  100  caused by the smaller distance to the reference point  130 . 
     Additionally or alternatively, the component board  210  may only comprise a single layer of conductors, because there crossings may be avoided between conductor traces on the component board  210 . Moreover, this arrangement  200  may work for an arbitrary number of sensor chips  100  arranged around the reference point  130 , such as N=2, 3, 4, 5, . . . , 20, . . . sensor chips. 
     The conductor traces on the component board  210  may furthermore have a larger or maximum possible spacing from one another and, thus, the accuracy requirements for the traces may be relaxed compared to conventional implementations. Thus, the board  210  may be produced with simpler and cheaper etching and patterning processes. The allowable thicker traces and the wider pitches between traces may also allow for thicker traces, which might make the system more robust in terms of a higher mechanical strength, less process variations due to coarser structures, and smaller resistances of conductor traces, which may lead to more accurate output signals. Moreover, if the conductor traces have less resistance, it may be possible to reduce the input and output resistances of the sensor circuits or sensor elements on the sensor chips  100  and this may lead to a larger bandwidth of the sensor system. 
     In a conventional implementation using a multilayer component board, it is simple to avoid crossings of conductor traces in individual layers. However, the board is typically more complex and, hence, more expensive to fabricate. Alternatively, one could use a digital communication protocol to communicate the sensor output signals of all sensor chips on a common signal line. Yet this may require a communication interface on each sensor chip, which adds extra costs per sensor chip. Besides the communication takes extra time and needs to be done in a time-multiplexed way, which may reduce bandwidth and increases signal delay time. By using an embodiment it may, therefore, be possible to enhance the bandwidth, reduce the delay time without significantly adding costs to the individual chips  100 . 
       FIG. 4  shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device  100  according to an embodiment, which may, for instance, be used in the arrangement shown in  FIG. 2  in more detail. The emphasis of  FIG. 4  lies on the positions of the sensor terminals  110 ,  120  of the sensor chip  100 . The sensor chip  100  comprises a half-bridge circuit  320  comprising two sensor elements  330 - 1 ,  330 - 2  forming a series connection with a node  340  between the sensor elements  330 - 1 ,  330 - 2 . The node  340  is coupled to the sensor signal output terminal  120  of the device  100 . 
     The sensor elements  330  are or comprise magnetic field sensor elements  350 , which may, for instance, be magneto-resistors or magneto-resistive sensor elements (XMR-sensor elements), such as anisotropic magneto-resistive (AMR) sensor elements, giant magneto-resistive (GMR) sensor elements, tunneling magneto-resistive (TMR) sensor elements, or colossal magneto-resistive (CMR) sensor elements. 
     However, the sensor elements  320  shown in  FIG. 4  further comprise a magnetically pinned layer, such as GMR, TMR or CMR sensor elements, which are oriented in an antiparallel direction denoted by the arrows in  FIG. 4 . In other words, they comprise magnetic reference directions enclosing an angle of essentially 180°. As will be shown in more detail below, in the case of AMR sensor elements, the magnetic reference directions of these sensor elements  320  enclose an angle of essentially 90° such that their reference directions are essentially perpendicular to one another. Furthermore, they typically do not comprise a pinned layer. Their reference directions may, for instance, be defined by so-called barber pole structures. 
       FIG. 4  represents a mixture of layout and circuit schematic. With respect to the layout, the rectangular shape of the chip  100  is shown and the circles or disks denote the size, shape, and positions of contact pads for the terminals  110 ,  120 , which may be implemented as bond-pads or pads, onto which bumps can make contact in a flip-chip assembly. Hence,  FIG. 4  shows the positions of the sensor terminals  110 ,  120  of the device  100 . 
     However, the two resistors illustrating the sensor elements  330  and the interconnect wires typically do not denote the exact shape and positions of the elements, but only their connectivity. In other words, the sensor elements  300  can be place elsewhere on the chip compared to the positions of the sensor elements  330  shown in  FIG. 4 , but they may be connected to the terminals and between themselves as shown in  FIG. 4 . The sensor chip  100  comprises a first supply terminal  100 - 1 , for instance, for a negative supply voltage (negative supply terminal  110 - 1 ), a second supply terminal  100 - 2 , for instance, for a positive supply voltage (positive supply terminal  110 - 2 ), and the sensor signal output terminal  120 , also referred to as the output signal terminal, along with the first and second sensor elements  330 - 1 ,  330 - 2 , coupled to one another by on-chip interconnect wires. 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the supply terminals  110  are on the left side and at the center of the device  100 . Yet the signal output  120  is at the right side of the device  100 . In other words, the supply terminals  110  are closer to the reference point  130  than any of the sensor signal output terminals  120 . 
     For a flip-chip assembly it may also be advisable that the terminals  110 ,  120  are not all close to a single line to allow a more stable mounting position. Otherwise, the chip  100  might not stand stably on its bumps. Therefore, it may be advisable to arrange the terminals  110 ,  120  on different horizontal and vertical positions as shown in  FIG. 4 , where two contacts  110 - 1 ,  120  are in left and right lower corners, respectively, and one contact  110 - 2  is at the top edge of the device  100  or its die. 
     To be able to place the sensor chip  100  with minimum tilt on the component board  210  (not shown in  FIG. 4 ) in order to detect the proper magnetic field components and to have best sensor accuracy, it may be advisable to place the contact pads  110 ,  120  close to the corners in order to have maximum spacing between them so that small differences in the height of the bumps may give only small tilts. 
     Before further devices will be explained in more detail, a half-bridge circuit  320  and a full-bridge circuit will be described in more detail with respect to  FIGS. 5 and 6 . 
     Embodiments may refer to magneto-resistive sensor elements  320  coupled or connected to one another to form one or more half-bridge circuits  320  as depicted in the circuit diagram of  FIG. 5  and a full-bridge circuit  360  as depicted in the circuit diagram of  FIG. 6 . The half-bridge circuit  320  shown in  FIG. 5  comprises two sensor elements  330 - 1 ,  330 - 2 , which may, for instance, be implemented as magneto-resistors or magneto-resistive sensor elements with pinned layers. In this case, the top resistor (sensor element  330 - 2 ), which is connected between the positive supply terminal  110 - 2  being supplied with the voltage Vsupply during operation and the output signal terminal  120  (“Output”) comprises a reference direction along the negative x′-direction in the layer of the sensor chip. In contrast, the bottom resistor (sensor element  330 - 1 ), which is connected between output signal terminal  120  and the negative supply terminal  110 - 1  (“ground”) coupled, for instance, during operation to a reference potential such as ground, comprises a reference direction along the positive x′-direction. As outlined before, the reference direction of the magneto-resistive sensor elements  330  with pinned layers may be defined by the direction of a permanent magnetization of the pinned layer, which may, for instance, be magnetized during the manufacturing of the sensor element. 
       FIG. 6  shows a circuit diagram of a full-bridge circuit  360  comprising a parallel connection of two half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 ,  320 - 2 . The first half-bridge circuit  320 - 1  is essentially identical to the half-bridge circuit  320  shown in  FIG. 5 , while the second half-bridge circuit  320 - 2  comprises magnetizations of the pinned layers of its sensor elements  330 ′, which are anti-parallel to the ones of the first half-bridge circuit  320 - 1 . Therefore, the reference direction of the sensor element  330 ′- 1  of the second half-bridge circuit  320 - 2  is anti-parallel to the one of sensor element  330 - 1  of the first half-bridge circuit  320 - 1 . The same is also true for the reference directions of the sensor elements  330 ′- 2  and  330 - 2  of the two half-bridge circuits  320 - 2 ,  320 - 1 , respectively. 
     Although the supply terminals  110  of the two half-bridge circuits may be electrically coupled as illustrated in  FIG. 6 , the full-bridge circuit  360  and, hence, the sensor device  100  may comprise a plurality of sensor signal output terminals  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2  of the two half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 ,  320 - 2  coupled to the nodes  340 - 1 ,  340 - 2 , respectively. 
     In other words, by adding a second half-bridge circuit  320 - 2  essentially identical to the first one  320 - 1  with the reference directions of positive and negative x′ direction being swapped, a combination of both half-bridge circuits  320  is called a full-bridge circuit  360 . The output signal of the full-bridge circuit  340  may be tapped between the two output terminals  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2  of the half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 ,  320 - 2 , respectively. 
     Naturally, for instance in the case of magneto-resistive sensor elements, each of the two sensor elements  330  may be split up in a plurality of (magneto-resistive) sensor elements and being connected in series, in parallel or in a combination thereof. Thereby they may have identical reference directions or anti-parallel ones. In the latter case the magnetic sensitivity of the total sum of resistors may be reduced because the two anti-parallel reference directions cancel out. 
     Instead of +/−x′-directions any other set of two anti-parallel directions may also be used. Often one uses systems with half- or full-bridge circuits having +/−x′-reference directions and half- or full-bridge circuits having +/−y′-reference directions, where x′ and y′ direction are mutually perpendicular. Examples of magneto-resistive sensor elements with pinned layers are, for instance, GMR (giant MR=giant magneto-resisitve), TMR (tunnelling MR), and CMR (colossal MR), amongst others. 
     Besides these sensor elements, magneto-resistors without a pinned layer, such as permalloy stripes or AMRs (anisotropic MR) may also be used. The reference directions of AMRs may, for instance, be defined by direction of the current flow through the sensor elements and this may be defined by barber pole stripes on permalloy stripes to name just one example. A half-bridge circuit  320  of AMRs may be similar to the ones described above, yet the reference directions may be perpendicular of the upper and lower resistors  330  instead of being anti-parallel. 
     In contrast to the sensor chip  100  shown in  FIG. 4 ,  FIG. 7  shows a circuit diagram of a sensor chip  100  according to an embodiment comprising two half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 ,  320 - 2  similar to the one shown in  FIG. 4 . Besides the supply terminals  110 - 1 ,  110 - 2  for the negative supply voltage (negative supply terminal) and for the positive supply voltage (positive supply terminal), the sensor chip  100  comprises two sensor signal output terminals  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2  for the first and second half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 ,  320 - 2 , respectively, which also correspond to the nodes  340 - 1 ,  340 - 2  of the two half-bridge circuits  320 . Both output signal terminals  120  are arranged further away from the reference point  130  or—in other words—on the right side of the supply terminals  110 - 1  and  110 - 2  in  FIG. 7 . As described before,  FIG. 7  illustrates the position of sensor terminals of the two half-bridge circuits  320 . Furthermore,  FIG. 7  illustrates the on-chip interconnecting wires used to electrically couple the sensor elements  330  to the terminals  110 ,  120 . 
     The specific arrangement of the terminals  110 ,  120  of  FIG. 7  also enlarges or even maximizes the distances between all neighboring contact pads  110 ,  120 . Larger distances may reduce or minimize the risk of accidental solder bridges, when the chip  100  is soldered to the component board  210  (not shown in  FIG. 7 ). The situation is similar when the sensor chip  100  comprises a full-bridge circuit  360  instead of two half-bridge circuits  320 . This situation is shown in  FIG. 8 . 
       FIG. 8  shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor chip  100  according to a further embodiment. The sensor chip  100  differs from the one shown in  FIG. 7 , for instance, with respect to the reference directions of the sensor elements  330 . While the sensor elements  330  of the first half-bridge circuit  320 - 1  and the reference directions of the sensor elements  330 ′ of the second half-bridge circuit  320 - 2  of the sensor chip  100  of  FIG. 7  were essentially oriented perpendicular to one another forming two essentially independent half-bridge circuits  320 , reference directions of the sensor elements  330 ,  330 ′ of the half-bridge circuits  320  of  FIG. 8  are essentially parallel and anti-parallel oriented. As a consequence, the two half-bridge circuits  320  may be used as a full-bridge circuit  360 . Nevertheless, also  FIG. 8  illustrates the positions of the sensor terminals of the full-bridge circuit  360  comprised in the sensor device  100  as well as the on-chip interconnect wires used to electrically couple the sensor elements  330  to the terminals  110 ,  120 . 
       FIG. 9  shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor chip  100  comprising two full-bridge circuits  360 - 1 ,  360 - 2  illustrating the positions of the sensor terminals  110 ,  120  of the two full bridge-circuits  360 . The sensor chip  100  comprises two supply terminals  110 - 1  (negative supply terminal) and  110 - 2  (positive supply terminal) and four sensor signal output terminals  120 - 1 , . . . ,  120 - 4 . All four output signal terminals  120  are right of the two supply terminals  110  or—in other words—farther away from the reference point  130 . 
     To be a little more precise, the sensor device  100  shown here comprises four half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 , . . . ,  320 - 4  forming the two full-bridge circuits  360 - 1 ,  360 - 2 . The sensor elements  330  of the first and second half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 ,  320 - 2  are parallel or anti-parallel oriented along a horizontal direction shown in  FIG. 9 . These two half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 ,  320 - 2  form the first full-bridge circuit  360 - 1  with its first and second output signal terminals  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2 . In contrast to the other output signal terminals  120 - 1 , . . . ,  120 - 4  of the sensor device  100 , the first output signal terminal  120 - 1  does not simultaneously form or is located at the position of the corresponding node  340 - 1  of the half-bridge circuit  320 - 1 . 
     Using on-chip interconnect wires the sensor devices  330  of the first full-bridge circuit  360  are coupled to the already described supply terminals  110 - 1 ,  110 - 2  and the corresponding output signal terminals  120 . The same is also true for the second full-bridge circuit  360 - 2 , comprising a third half-bridge circuit  320 - 3 , and a fourth half-bridge circuit  320 - 4 , each comprising a node  340 - 3 ,  340 - 4 , respectively, which are located at the positions of the third and fourth output signal terminals  120 - 3 ,  120 - 4 , respectively. As shown in  FIG. 9 , the on-chip interconnect wires also electrically couple the sensor elements  330  to the supply terminals  110  and the respective output signal terminals  120 . 
     Optionally, one or more terminals such as lands may be added, which serve only or mainly the purpose of providing additional mechanical stability. Optionally, their electrical properties may be redundant as, for instance, shown in  FIG. 9 . In other words, an optional terminal  110 - 3  may be added or implemented to provide mechanical stability and, optionally, to provide an additional electrical contact for the sensor device  100 . The same is also true for terminal  110 - 4  may be implemented mainly for mechanical stability purposes and, optionally, also to provide an additional electrical contact for the device  100 . 
     Naturally, as indicated by reference sign X, additional terminals, terminal-like structures or stabilizing structures may be implemented, which do not have an electrical contact to the circuitry of the sensor device  100 , but are merely implemented to provide additional mechanical stability. The stabilizing structure X may, for instance, be implemented as a land, an additional pin or any other terminal or terminal-like structure which is, however, internally not connected. In other words, the stabilizing structures such as lands, bumps, solder dots, leads or other stabilizing structures may be implemented for stability reasons only, which do not have a galvanic contact inside the circuitry of the sensor device  100 . In other words, they are electrically function-free. 
       FIG. 9  shows an example of a layout of a sensor device  100  having a skewed intersecting plane  160  subdividing the sensor device  100  into two portions  170 - 1 ,  170 - 2  such that the intersecting plane  160  is not parallel to any of the sides of the sensor device  100 . In contrast to the situation shown in  FIG. 8 , the plane  160  intersects the longer sides of the sensor device  100  at an angle different from 90°. 
     In terms of their reference orientations, the sensor elements  330  of the second full-bridge circuit  360 - 2  are also oriented parallel and anti-parallel with respect to one another. However, the reference directions of the sensor elements  330  of the two different full-bridge circuits  360  are essentially perpendicular to one another as illustrated by the arrows in  FIG. 9 . As a consequence, the sensor device  100  may be capable of providing at its four output signal terminals  120  sensor signals indicative of both a sine- and a cosine-contribution having a phase shift of approximately 90° in case of magnetic field sensor elements  330  using the -pinned layer to define their reference directions. Hence, the sensor device  100  may be a sensor device capable of detecting an angle of 360° of a magnetic field acting on the sensor device  100 . In contrast, the sensor device  100  of  FIG. 8  only provides a single or the previously-mentioned component signals. The sensor device  100  of  FIG. 7  may be used, in contrast to that, as a 360°-sensor. 
     In the following, the concept of footprint of packages will be considered more closely. When a sensor package is mounted on a component board  210 , it typically serves two purposes. The component board  210  holds the sensor package  100  in place and, hence, accommodates it mechanically, while it also establishes and enables electric contact of the sensor circuit  100  with other circuits via fine conductor traces on the surface of the component board  210 . In other words, the board  210  may electrically couple the sensor circuit or sensor device  100  to other components and circuits. 
     Component boards  210  may comprise several conductive layers, which may be formed, for instance, from metallic materials. These layers may therefore be also referred to as metallization layers or interconnect layers. A conductive layer may, for instance, be formed on a top main surface of the component board  210 . Optionally, a further conductive layer may be formed on bottom main surface. One or more additional conductive layers may be implemented within the component board  210  between the top and bottom main surfaces. Often these conductive layers are made from copper (Cu) and patterned via etching processes. However, the more conductive layers a component board comprises, the more expensive it may become to manufacture it. This is even more so, when the lateral geometrical tolerances need to be kept small, for instance, smaller than 75 μm, smaller than 50 μm or even smaller than 25 μm. 
     Embodiments may focus on methods and implementation how to use cheaper component boards  210 , which may only comprise a single conductive layer. Although this conductive layer may be on any of both main surfaces of the board or even in-between, it may be more common to mount the packages on the same main surface, on which the conductive layer is arranged. Often this side is referred to as the top surface. 
     Sensor packages  100  may be implemented as surface mounted or surface mountable devices (SMD), which may be placed on the top surface of the board  210 . The leads, lands or terminals of the sensor package  100  may touch in this case the conductive layer. The semiconductor manufacturer often recommends in this situation a footprint for each sensor package, which defines geometrical rules and shapes of how the conductor traces of the supply and signal lines may be shaped and placed in order to achieve reliable contact between conductor traces on the component board  210  and the sensor terminals  110 ,  120  of the sensor package  100 . 
     In terms of the design, it might be advisable on the one side to define the conductor traces to be sufficiently large to carry the electric current and/or to have small enough resistance. Moreover, it may be advisable to define the solder interfaces between the conductor traces and the leads or lands of the sensor package to comply to several rules in order to be reliable. 
     On the other hand, it may be advisable to design the pitches between neighboring conductor traces to be wide enough to prevent accidental shorts between them. In this context, it might be interesting to consider that the leads of the sensor package  100  may be formed to be three-dimensional objects having comparably complicated shapes, for instance, comprising gull-wing-shaped structures. Moreover, the lands of the sensor packages  100  may comprise more than one surface exposed so that the sensor package  100  may has to be regarded as a three-dimensional object itself. However, the footprint is typically a two-dimensional object or structure and can, therefore, define the contact arrangement. In the case of leaded packages, which are different from SMD-packages, the component board  210  typically requires small holes, into which the leads of the leaded packages  100  are inserted prior to soldering. Embodiments may also apply to leaded packages, since only the footprint may be relevant in terms of the terminals  110 ,  120  of embodiments. 
     So far only the positions of supply and signal terminals  110 ,  120  of sensor chips  100  configured for flip-chip mounting have been described. Yet the same principle may also apply to SMD-sensor packages  100 , as, for instance, shown in  FIG. 10 a    and  FIG. 10 b    for N=3 sensor packages  100 . 
       FIG. 10 a    shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment comprising a component board  210 , onto which three SMD sensor packages or sensor devices  100 - 1 ,  100 - 2 ,  100 - 3  are arranged around a reference point  130 , which represents a central point or midpoint of a hole  280  of a recess  240 .  FIG. 10 b    shows the schematic plan view of  FIG. 10 a    without the three SMD sensor devices  100 . 
     The sensor devices  100  are arranged at angles of approximately 120° with respect to one another so that the sensor devices  100  are equally distributed with respect to the angle around the reference point  130 . 
     The sensor devices  100  are coupled to the component board  210  and electrically connected to the supply lines  220  and, with respect to the supply lines  220 , radially outwards arranged signal lines  230 . The sensor devices  100  are coupled to the conductive lines  225 ,  235  of the board  210  by solder dots  315 , only some of which are denoted by their reference signs in  FIG. 10 b    for clarity reasons only. As described before, each of the sensor devices  100  comprises at least two supply terminals  110 ,  110 - 2 , which are coupled to the respective supply lines  220 . For the sake of simplicity only, the terminals are only referred to by their reference signs with respect to the third device  100 - 3 . However, the sensor devices  100  as used in the sensor arrangement  200  of  FIG. 10 a    are all identical and arranged in such a way that by rotating the sensor devices  100  by approximately 120°, the sensor devices  100  will simply be exchanged without affecting the actual functionality of the sensor arrangement  200 , since the sensor devices are not only identical, but also oriented such that the previously-described rotation renders them invariant. Naturally, this is not necessary in other embodiments, but merely represents an option. 
     The sensor devices  100  further comprise a sensor signal output terminal  120  which is further away from the reference point  130  than any of the supply terminals  110 . Each of the sensor signal output terminals  120  is coupled to a different signal line  230  of a plurality of signal lines  230 . Apart from the previously-described supply terminals  110  and the sensor signal output terminal  120 , the sensor devices  100  further comprise inactive or internally uncoupled terminals, which are not capable of providing a supply voltage or to carry a sensor signal. However, these inactive terminals may improve mechanical stability of the package soldered to the component board. 
     The sensor devices  100  comprise as housing  140  a molded body and an electrically-conducting surface  370 , which is also referred to as die paddle. The die paddle, for instance, may be used to ground a die  380  of the sensor device  100  comprising the actual sensor elements  330 . The conductive die paddle may be implemented so that the die paddle and the leads can be fabricated from a single metallic leadframe and at least one lead is coupled with the die paddle to hold the die in place during the molding procedure, where the die and at least parts of the die paddle are covered with mold compound. 
     The two most inner terminals, leads or pins of the housing  140  as shown in  FIGS. 10 a  and 10 b    are in direct electrical contact to the surface  370  allowing, for instance, to electrically couple the surface  370  to ground potential as mentioned before. 
     The actual layout of the die  380  corresponds to that of the sensor device  100  as shown in  FIG. 4 , although instead of directly implementing the terminals  110 ,  120 , the die  380  comprises a plurality of bond pads  390 , enabling an electrical contact to the terminals  110 ,  120  by bond wires  400 . In other words, in the embodiment shown in  FIGS. 10 a  and 10 b   , the sensor chip or die  380  is coupled to the terminals  110 ,  120  of the sensor device  100  by the terminals of the actual sensor chip or die  380 , which are implemented as bond pads  390 . 
     As the plan view of the component board  210  further shows, the recess  240  further comprises an aperture  290  connecting the hole  280  with its reference point  130  and the outer perimeter  300  of the component board  210 . The sensor devices  100  are arranged to be in close contact with the inner perimeter  310  of the hole  280  to allow a magnetic field source operating in or in the vicinity of the hole  280  to couple a sufficiently-high magnetic flux into the sensor devices  100  to help to strengthen a signal-to-noise-ratio compared to an implementation with the sensor devices  100  being further outwardly arranged with respect to the reference point  130 . 
     In other words,  FIG. 10 a    shows SMD-packages  100  with leads, yet also leadless SMD-packages  100  may be used here. The SMD-packages  100  are aligned so that the two rows  150 - 1 ,  150 - 2  of leads  110 ,  120  per package  100  are approximately oriented along the radial direction. The two innermost leads  120  coupled per package  100  are supply terminals  120 , whereby the leads on both rows can be contacted with the respective supply terminal  120  or only on one row. In other words, for the two terminals of positive and negative supply there may be four leads available, although here only two are actually used. The signal leads  120  and the signal lines  230  are at larger radial distance from the reference point  130  than the supply leads  110  and supply lines  110 . 
     Naturally, other examples of SMD packages may also be used, for instance, packages comprising leads or lands as terminals.  FIG. 10 c    shows a perspective view of a SMD package for a sensor device  100  according to an embodiment. The package shown in  FIG. 10 c    comprises leads  550  which may be used to directly mount and electrically contact the package and, hence, the sensor device  100  onto the board  210  (not shown in  FIG. 10 c   ). 
       FIG. 10 d    shows a similar perspective view of another SMD package for a sensor device  100  also comprising leads  550 , which allow the package to be directly mounted onto the board  210 .  FIG. 10 e    shows a perspective view of a further SMD package for a sensor device  100  which does not comprise leads. It does, however, comprise lands  560  which may also be used to directly mount and electrically contact the package and, hence, the sensor device  100  onto the board  210  (also not shown in  FIG. 10 e   ). 
     In contrast to sensor devices comprising a package, in which the position of the terminals such as bumps, leads, lands and solder dots may determine the question of electrical contact and mechanical stability, in the case of a flip-chip implementation of a sensor device  100 , the terminals on the die or chip of the sensor device  100  itself may determine the previous characteristics. While in a packaged implementation of a sensor device  100 , an electrical connection between the terminals of the package and the die or chip of the sensor die has to be established, for instance, by using bond wires, implementing bond wires may eventually be skipped using the flip-chip technique. 
     In the case of a package sensor device  100 , the terminals of the package fulfill the same functions than the terminals of the chip have in the case of a flip-chip device. For instance, in the case of a packaged sensor device, the positions of the terminals on the die may be chosen essentially arbitrarily as long as the terminals on the die are electrically coupled to the terminals of the package, for instance, by using bond wires. Naturally, in a real-life implementation, certain limitations may exist in terms of positioning the terminals on the die with respect to the terminals of the package, as, for instance, it may be advisable to prevent bond wires from crossing in the plan view of the die. 
     Similarly, it is possible to electrically contact or couple two half-bridge circuits  320 - 1 ,  320 - 2  or a full-bridge circuit  360  (not shown in  FIGS. 11 a  and 11 b   ).  FIG. 11 a    shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement  200  comprising a component board  210  with three SMD-style sensor devices  100  accommodating sensor elements  330  in the form of AMR-resistors.  FIG. 11 b    shows the schematic plan view of  FIG. 11 a    without the three SMD sensor devices  100 . They may be implemented as magneto-resistors without a pinned layer. The straight lines inside the resistor symbols denote the direction of current flow through the sensor elements  330 , which may, for instance, be defined by barber-pole stripes. Here the die paddle or surface  370  is electrically tied to the center pins on both sides of the chip package  100 , which may be used to connect the device  100  to ground. 
     Since the sensor devices  100  comprise two half-bridge circuits  320  each, the number of sensor signal output terminals  120  actively used is higher by a factor 2 compared to the implementation of  FIGS. 10 a  and 10 b   . Hence, also the number of signal lines  230  is higher—to be precise, by a number of 2—than in the previously described embodiment. 
       FIG. 12 a    shows an alternative embodiment of a sensor arrangement  200 , which is similar to the one shown in  FIGS. 11 a  and 11 b   .  FIG. 12 a    also shows a plan view of a sensor arrangement  200  comprising a component board  210 , on which three SMD-style sensor devices  100  are arranged, each comprising two half-bridge circuits based on AMR-sensor elements  330 .  FIG. 12 b    again shows the corresponding plan view of  FIG. 12 a    without the sensor devices  100 . 
     Here one signal output terminal  120  has the same distance to the reference point  130  as one supply terminal  110 . As a consequence, the sensor chip  100  with or without its sensor package may be configured to be arranged with respect to the reference point  130  in the common plane defined by the terminals and the board  210  such that no footprint portion of the at least one signal output terminal  120  is closer to the reference point  130  than any footprint portion of the supply terminals  110 . 
     On the one hand, the arrangement  200  may comprise a larger distance of the sensor chips or sensor packages  100  from the central hole  280  and its reference point  130  compared to the previously described sensor arrangement. The approximately circular ground line as part of the supply line  220  may be placed between the hole  280  and the sensor packages  100 . On the other hand, this arrangement  200  may offer the possibility of using three of the six leads or terminals per package  100  for signal output terminals  120 . However, in the embodiment shown, only two are used. 
     The sensor package  100  as shown in  FIG. 13 a    each have two rows  150  of terminals. The supply contacts  110  are in only one of the two rows and immediately neighboring terminals. 
       FIG. 13 a    shows a schematic block diagram of a sensor arrangement  200  comprising three SMD-sensor packages  100  each comprising two full-bridge circuits  360  (reference sign not used in  FIG. 13 a    for clarity reasons only) of magneto-resistive sensor elements  330  with pinned layers. For instance, the sensor elements may be TMR-based sensor elements  330 . The sensor packages  100  may be identically implemented and arranged and oriented with respect to the reference point  130  to be rotationally invariant with respect to a rotation of approximately 120°.  FIG. 13 b    shows the corresponding plan view of  FIG. 13 a    without the sensor devices  100 . 
     Each SMD-sensor package  100  comprises six terminals, which may be implemented as leads or pins, two of which are used for power supply (supply terminals  110 ) and four of which are used for output signals (sensor signal output terminals  120 ). The arrangement  200  avoids crossings of conductor traces on the component board  210 . As a consequence, a single conductive or interconnect layer on the board  210  may be enough to establish all necessary electrical contacts. 
     The sensor device  100  may, for instance, comprise an arrangement of terminals  110 ,  120  of at least one sensor chip or die  380 —with or without sensor package—, which comprises at least one sensor element  330  or sensor circuit. It may further comprise at least two supply terminals  110  configured to supply the sensor element  330  or sensor circuit with electric power. At least one signal output terminal  110  may be configured to provide the output signal of the sensor element  330  or sensor circuit. The at least two supply terminals  110  and the at least one signal terminal  120  may be contactable by a footprint in a plane, wherein the footprint portions of the at least two supply terminals  110  and of the at least one signal terminal  120  are arranged in at least one row  150 . The sensor chip  380  with or without its sensor package may be configured to be arranged with respect to a reference point  130  in the plane such that no footprint portion of the at least one signal output terminal  120  is a member of the at least one row comprising the supply terminals  110  and is closer to the reference point  130  than any footprint portion of the supply terminals  110  of this same row  150 . 
     An arrangement of terminals of at least one sensor chip or die  380  with or without sensor package  100  may, for instance, comprise at least one sensor element  330  or sensor circuit, at least two supply terminals  110  configured to supply the sensor element  330  or sensor circuit with electric power and at least one signal output terminal  120  configured to provide the output signal of the sensor element  330  or sensor circuit. The at least two supply terminals  110  and the at least one signal terminal  120  may be contactable by a footprint in a plane, wherein the sensor chip or die  380  with or without its sensor package may be configured to be arranged with respect to the reference point  130  in the plane such that no footprint portion of the at least one signal output terminal  120  is closer to the reference point  130  than any footprint portion of the supply terminals  110 . 
     Optionally, the main surface of the sensor chip  380  with or without sensor package may be parallel to the plane. Moreover, optionally, all footprint portions of the at least two supply terminals  110  may be closer to the reference point  130  than any footprint portion of the at least one signal output terminal  120 . Optionally, the at least one signal output terminal  120  may be coupled to the output (node  340 ) of a half-bridge circuit  320  comprising magneto-resistors  330  on the at least one sensor chip or die  380  with or without sensor package. Optionally, the at least one signal output terminal  120  may comprise at least two signal output terminals  120 . For instance, the signal output terminal  120  may be directly coupled with the corresponding node  340  arranged in between two magneto-resistive sensor elements (magneto-resistors  330 ). 
     As outlined before, the at least one sensor element  330  may be or may comprise a magnetic field sensor element. Apart from the previously mentioned magneto-resistive sensor elements  330 , they may further come from a group comprising Hall plates, vertical Hall effect devices or sensor elements, magnetic field effect transistors (MAG-FETs) and magneto-resistors (magneto-resistive sensor elements). Some of these magnetic sensor elements  330  may comprise at least one magnetically pinned layer. Examples of these sensor elements comprise, for instance, GMR-, TMR- and CMR-based sensor elements  330 . However, also sensor elements  330  without pinned layers may naturally be implemented, to which, amongst others, AMR-based sensor elements  330  belong. 
     Optionally, the magneto-resistors or magneto-resistive sensor elements may be connected to at least one half-bridge circuit  320  or to at least one full-bridge circuit  360  or to at least two half-bridge circuits  320  or to at least two full-bridge circuits  360 , to name just a few examples. Optionally, the at least one sensor chip or die  380  or sensor package  100  may comprise two or more sensor chips  380  or sensor packages  100  arranged on a component board  210  around a reference point  130 . The two or more sensor chips or dies  380  may be mounted using a flip-chip-technique on the component board  210 . Naturally, the two or more sensor chips or dies  380  may also be housed in leaded or leadless SMD packages or even in leaded packages for through hole mounting. The component board  210  may comprise conductor traces or lines  220 ,  230  to contact the terminals  210 ,  220  of the two or more sensor chips or dies  380  or the sensor packages  100 . 
     The conductor traces used to contact output signal terminals of the two or more sensor chips or dies  380  or sensor packages  100  may be designed to not cross or overlap or touch in a plan view onto the main surface of the component board  210 . All conductor traces used to contact the output signal terminals of the two or more sensor chips or dies  380  or sensor packages  100  may, for instance, comprise parts of no more than one conductive or interconnect layer of the component board  210 . However, the board  210  may comprise other parts like jumpers. 
     Optionally, the two or more sensor chips or dies  380  or sensor packages  100  may be arranged around a recess  240  or a hole  280  in the component board  210 . The component board  210  may further comprise an aperture  290  between its perimeter  300  and the hole  280 , which may be part of the recess  240 . 
     Moreover, an embodiment may further comprise a sensor system comprising at least three sensor chips or dies  380  with or without sensor packages or corresponding housings  140 . In other words, the system may comprise, for instance, three or more sensor devices  100 . 
     Each sensor chip, die  380  or device  100 —with or without sensor package or housing—may comprise at least two supply terminals  110 . Moreover, each sensor chip or die  380  with or without a sensor package may comprise at least one signal output terminal  120  capable of providing a signal indicative of a strength, direction and/or other parameters of a magnetic field acting on the respective sensor chip or die  380  (with or without its sensor package). The at least two supply terminals  110  and the at least one signal output terminal  120  of the at least three sensor chips  380  (with or without sensor packages) or sensor devices  100  may be coupled to respective footprint portions on the main surface of a component board  210 . The at least three sensor chips  380  or sensor packages  100  may be arranged on a component board  210  around a reference point  130  in such a way that for each sensor chip or die  380  (with or without sensor package or housing) there is no signal terminal  120  closer to the reference point  130  than the at least two supply terminals  110 . 
     Optionally, the sensor elements  330  on all of the at least three sensor chips or dies  380  may be oriented in such a way with respect to the reference point  130  that their orientations can become identical, when they are rotated by the same angle as their positions are rotated around the reference point  130 . The positions of the sensor devices  100  or its dies  380  may be invariant under a rotation in some embodiments. 
     Embodiments may, therefore, relate to a terminal arrangement of a sensor chip or a package. For instance, a sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment may comprise a board  210  comprising at least two supply lines  220 , at least three signal lines  230  and a hole  280  with a reference point  130 . It may further comprise at least three sensor devices  100  mechanically accommodated on the board  210  and oriented toward the reference point  130 , each sensor device  100  being electrically coupled to the at least two supply lines  220  by at least two supply terminals  110  of the sensor device  100  and to at least one signal line  230  by at least one sensor signal output terminal  230  to provide a sensor signal to the at least one signal line  230 , wherein the sensor signal may be indicative of a magnetic field or a property thereof, such as its strength and/or its direction, acting on the sensor device  100 .The at least two supply lines  220  may be arranged radially inside of the plurality of signal lines  230  with respect to the reference point  130 . The at least two supply terminals  110  may be closer to the reference point  130  then any sensor signal output terminals  120  of the sensor devices  100 . 
     Embodiments have a wide range of possible applications. Examples come, for instance, from the field of magnetic sensor systems. Such a sensor system may, for instance, comprise several sensor chips or sensor packages  100  arranged on a circuit board around a center.  FIG. 14  shows a perspective view of a first example of a sensor system  500  comprising a sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment. The arrangement  200  comprises a board  210  in the form of a printed circuit board (PCB) mechanically accommodating a plurality of sensor devices  100 . The board  210  comprises a hole  280 , through which a shaft  510  with a diametrically magnetized magnet  520  attached to it is mounted. The magnet  520  is arranged such that the magnetic field caused by the magnet  520  acts on the devices  100 . The board  210  further holds an evaluation circuit  530 , to which the sensor devices  520  are coupled to receive the corresponding sensor signals. The reference point  130  (not shown in  FIG. 14 ) may, for instance, be the center point of the hole  280  (recess  240 ). 
       FIG. 15  shows a perspective view and  FIG. 16  a side view of a further sensor system  500 . The sensor system shown in  FIGS. 15 and 16  differs from the one shown in  FIG. 14  for instance with respect to the arrangement of the magnet  520 . While in the system  500  of  FIG. 14  the magnet  520  was on a similar or even same level than the sensor devices  100 , here the magnet  520  is vertically displaced with respect to the board  210  and its sensor devices  100 . In other words, the magnet is displaced along a direction perpendicular to the plane formed by the terminals  110 ,  120  (not shown in  FIGS. 15 and 16 ) and/or along a symmetry axis of the shaft  510 . Moreover, the recess  240  further comprises an aperture  290  allowing a simpler fabrication or mounting of the arrangement  200 . 
     In the systems  500  shown in the  FIGS. 14,15 and 16  the ring magnet  520  is fixed to the shaft  510  and several sensor chips  100  are attached to a component board  210  and arranged around a central hole  280  (recess  240 ). The sensor signals can be combined in an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) as an example of an evaluation circuit  530 , which may be capable of measuring the rotational position of the magnet  520 . 
     This off-axis type of magnetic angle sensor system  500  might be competitive to on-axis angle sensor systems, which may only need a single chip, if the chips  100  for the off-axis sensor and the component board  210  may be cheap. So these sensor chips  100  might comprise or even contain only as few elements as possible and be as small as possible. For instance, they might even contain only one or two discrete half bridge-circuits of magneto-resistors, such as TMR-based sensor elements. 
     Moreover, the component board  210  may be a cheap single metal layer board  210  with cheap and thus coarse patterns. As a consequence, the contacts or terminals  110 ,  120  (not shown in  FIGS. 14, 15 and 16 ) of the sensor chips  100 , for instance in case of a flip-chip assembly, or the leads or lands of the sensor packages  100  in case of packaged sensors  100  may have to fulfill certain requirements to reduce or even minimize system costs. Embodiments may be used here. 
       FIGS. 17 and 18  show perspective views of two further sensor systems  500  based on using currents to create a magnetic field, which may then be detected by, for instance, TMR-based sensor elements. Again these systems  500  comprise a sensor arrangement  200  with a component board  210  carrying several sensor chips  100  along with bias magnets  540  attached to the sensor devices  100 . The board  210  comprises a central opening or hole  280  as part of a recess  240  further comprising an aperture  290 . Through the hole  280  a conductor is guided, which may, for instance, be integrated into or attached to a shaft  510 . When a current flows through the conductor, the sensor chips  100  may be able to detect its associated magnetic field and thus measure the current. Again, here a central opening  280  in the board  210  and several sensor chips  100  may be arranged around this opening  280 . In order to make the system  500  cheap, the sensor chips  100  may comprise simple sensor elements  330  only, for instance, like TMR-based sensor elements. Their contacts or terminals may be arranged such that a single metallization layer or interconnect layer of the component board  210  may be enough to provide all signals to a processing unit or evaluation circuit  530 , which may, for instance, compute the current. 
       FIG. 19 a    shows a simplified layout diagram of a sensor arrangement comprising four sensor devices  100 , which are illustrated in  FIG. 19 a    by dashed lines indicating the outer boundaries of the devices  100 . Moreover, the terminals or rather the footprint of the devices  100  are labelled by encircled numbers  1  to  5 . As will be laid out below,  FIG. 19 b    shows a simplified diagram of a sensor device  100  as implemented in  FIG. 19   a.    
     The sensor arrangement comprises three conductive lines of the first type  225 - 1 ,  225 - 2 ,  225 - 3  along with eight conductive lines of the second type  235 . As outlined before, with respect to the center point or reference point  130 , the conductive lines of the first type  225  are essentially arranged radially inward with respect to the conductive lines of the second type  235 . However, for some angles, the strict radially inward arrangement of the conductive lines of the first type  225  with respect to those of the second type  235 , may be lifted. However, this is only true for a small fraction of angles. As a consequence, essentially for at least a significant portion of, for instance, at least 75%, 85% or even 90% the conductive lines of the first type  225  are still radially inside of those of the second type  235 . To be more precise, in  FIG. 19 a   , a range of angles  550  of approximately 5° may exist, in which only one conductive line of the second type  235  is arranged with respect to the reference point  130  without a corresponding conductive line of the first type  225  being arranged radially inside. This represents an example of a situation, in which the previously-mentioned radially inward arrangement of the conductive lines is lifted, for at least a small range of angles  550 . 
       FIG. 19 b    shows a simplified diagram of a sensor device  100  comprising the corresponding arrangement of terminals of the first type  150  and of the terminals of the second type  125 . Once again,  FIG. 19 b    shows the intersecting plane  160  sub-dividing the sensor device  100  into a first portion  170 - 1  and a second portion  170 - 2 , wherein the first portion  170 - 1  only comprises terminals of the first type  115  and the second portion only comprises terminals of the second type  125  apart from at most one terminal of the first type  115 . 
     Although in many examples previously presented the conductive lines of the first type  225  mainly comprise supply lines for providing the respective devices  100  with electrical energy, the conductive lines of the first type  225  and, correspondingly, also the terminals of the first type  115  may comprise further lines and terminals, respectively. For instance, if the device  100  requires more than just one supply voltage, an additional supply line and a corresponding supply terminal may be implemented to provide the device  100  with at least two different supply voltages, for instance, with respect to a common reference potential (ground). Moreover, the conductive lines of the first type  225  as well as the corresponding terminals of the first type may further comprise, for instance, a common clock line, a common synchronization line or the like. 
       FIG. 20 a    shows a simplified outline of a sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment.  FIG. 20 b    shows the corresponding layout of the sensor arrangement  200  without the sensor devices  100  shown. Therefore,  FIG. 20 b    allows a more clear view of the signal lines of the first and second types  225 ,  235 . However, with respect to the further details,  FIGS. 20 a  and 20 b    are similar to, for instance, those of  FIGS. 11 a    and  11   b.    
     As shown in  FIGS. 20 a  and 20 b   , the sensor devices  100  each comprise one terminal X and the board  210  a corresponding solder dot  315 -X, which are implemented for mechanical stability reasons only or mainly. Neither the terminals X nor its corresponding solder dots  315 -X are electrically coupled to other circuit elements of the sensor device  100  and of the board  215 , respectively. Hence, they may be considered in terms of the sensor device  100  as being galvanically or electrically function-free, as no current or information is transported via these structures. Also in this case, the conductive lines of the first type  225  are essentially arranged radially inside of the conductive lines of the second type  235  such that the corresponding conductive lines  225 ,  235  on or in the board  210  do not cross. However, at some angles the radial arrangement described above is not strictly implemented. Nevertheless, the number of angles with respect to the overall angles at which at least one conductive line of the first type  225  and at least one conductive line of the second type  235  are arranged, is comparably small as outlined and described before. 
     The solder dot  315 -X′ may, optionally, be coupled to ground potential via the lead frame structure of the sensor package  140  and the corresponding conductive line of the first type  225  coupling the sensor device  100  to ground potential. However, as outlined before, both the solder pad  315 -X′ and its corresponding terminal X′ also serve the purpose of mechanically stabilizing the sensor package to the board  210 . 
       FIGS. 21 a  and 21 b    show a similar situation for a further sensor arrangement  200  according to an embodiment.  FIG. 21 b    shows a corresponding layout without the sensor devices shown. Once again, the overall radial arrangement as described before is implemented also here. However, for some angles, once again, the previously-described radial arrangement is deviated from. However, the number of angles or the fraction of angles is comparably small such that essentially the previously-described arrangement of the conductive lines  225 ,  235  is still valid. For instance, for the angle range  550  as depicted in  FIG. 21 b   , only a conductive line of the second type  235  exists without a conductive line of the first type  225  being radially inwardly arranged. The same situation is also depicted in  FIG. 20 b    but with the roles of the first and second conductive lines  225 ,  235  being interchanged. In  FIG. 20 b   , in the angle range  550  only a conductive line of the first type  225  exists with a conductive line of the second type  235  being arranged radially outwardly. 
     Naturally, other applications may also be used together with an embodiment. Using an embodiment may allow an easier implementation of a device  100  and/or a sensor arrangement  200 . 
     The description and drawings merely illustrate the principles of the invention. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements that, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples recited herein are principally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor(s) to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass equivalents thereof. 
     Functional blocks denoted as “means for . . . ” (performing a certain function) shall be understood as functional blocks comprising circuitry that is adapted for performing or to perform a certain function, respectively. Hence, a “means for s.th.” may as well be understood as a “means being adapted or suited for s.th.”. A means being adapted for performing a certain function does, hence, not imply that such means necessarily is performing said function (at a given time instant). 
     The methods described herein may be implemented as software, for instance, as a computer program. The sub-processes may be performed by such a program by, for instance, writing into a memory location. Similarly, reading or receiving data may be performed by reading from the same or another memory location. A memory location may be a register or another memory of an appropriate hardware. The functions of the various elements shown in the figures, including any functional blocks labeled as “means”, “means for forming”, “means for determining” etc., may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware, such as “a former”, “a determiner”, etc. as well as hardware capable of executing software in association with appropriate software. When provided by a processor, the functions may be provided by a single dedicated processor, by a single shared processor, or by a plurality of individual processors, some of which may be shared. Moreover, explicit use of the term “processor” or “controller” should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, network processor, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), read only memory (ROM) for storing software, random access memory (RAM), and non-volatile storage. Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included. Similarly, any switches shown in the figures are conceptual only. Their function may be carried out through the operation of program logic, through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control and dedicated logic, the particular technique being selectable by the implementer as more specifically understood from the context. 
     It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative circuitry embodying the principles of the invention. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes, which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and so executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown. 
     Furthermore, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, where each claim may stand on its own as a separate embodiment. While each claim may stand on its own as a separate embodiment, it is to be noted that—although a dependent claim may refer in the claims to a specific combination with one or more other claims—other embodiments may also include a combination of the dependent claim with the subject matter of each other dependent claim. Such combinations are proposed herein unless it is stated that a specific combination is not intended. Furthermore, it is intended to include also features of a claim to any other independent claim even if this claim is not directly made dependent to the independent claim. 
     It is further to be noted that methods disclosed in the specification or in the claims may be implemented by a device having means for performing each of the respective steps of these methods. 
     Further, it is to be understood that the disclosure of multiple steps or functions disclosed in the specification or claims may not be construed as to be within the specific order. Therefore, the disclosure of multiple steps or functions will not limit these to a particular order unless such steps or functions are not interchangeable for technical reasons. 
     Furthermore, in some embodiments a single step may include or may be broken into multiple substeps. Such substeps may be included and part of the disclosure of this single step unless explicitly excluded.