Bulk Metallic Glass for Low Noise Fluxgate

The team of Prime Photonics, Virginia Tech, and Utron Kinetics propose to develop a fabrication technology that will result in drop-in replacements for a diminishing supply of NASA fluxgate magnetometer ring cores. Specifically, we plan to capitalize on trends observed during the Phase I effort in terms of control over material properties in bulk, cobalt-rich metallic glass materials with increased permeability, tunable Curie temperature, highly controlled coercivity and saturation inductance, all without the introduction of magnetostrictive-based excess noise. The bulk nature of the material will provide an unprecedented degree of freedom in core geometry design over existing ribbon-form amorphous alloys, allowing for net shape, drop-in fluxgate cores that can compete with, or exceed noise levels observed in the 6-81.3 permalloy family. The Phase I effort brought the technology from observed trends in materials, a TRL of 1, to a level wherein analytical obersevations and proofs of concept have been carried out, a TRL of 3. During the Phase II effort, we projection a minimum TRL of 4 at the completion of the effort.