APPLICATION OF AMORPHOUS MAGNETIC WIRES TO COMPUTER PERIPHERALS

The principles and basic properties of a new flux-detection element, called a ''magnetoinductive (MI) element'', and a data tablet for inputting hand-written characters and figures into personal computers (PCs) using amorphous magnetic wires are presented. The MI element is as small as a magnetoresistive (MR) element and shows a high sensitivity for flux detection, i.e. as high as that of the flux gate sensor, with a resolution of 10(-5)-10(-6) Oe. Also, it is applicable in magnetic heads for computer magnetic discs and disc drive encoders. A quick-response MI element module is constructed using an MI element-FET (field effect transistor) multivibrating oscillator at 200 MHz. A transparent, thin, lightweight and reliable data tablet was constructed using a thin amorphous wire matrix for a Pen-PC assembly, which has a resolution of 0.3 mm and a processing speed of 150 dots per second.