Giant Magnetoresistive Effect

[Frank Gentges]

I suspect the GMR (giant magnetoresistive) effect may have some simple 
applications.  It has taken over the hard dirive read head technlology.  
See:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/heads/techGMR-c.html

The basic concept is better explained by IBM research at:

http://www.research.ibm.com/research/gmr.html

Commercial sensors are available at Digikey and are made by Nonvolatile 
Electronics at:

http://www.nve.com

It looks like a fruitful area for experimentation.  My initial thought 
is to make a tiny little probe to sense current in tiny PC board traces 
for testing and diagnostic work.  Perhaps a GMR head salvaged from a 
defective hard drive could be adapted.

Search on Google for "giant magnetoresistive" for lots of links.  I've 
listed some of the first and best.

Frank K0BRA