MagCam profile

MagCam is a high tech company offering the unique Magnetic Field Camera (MagCam) technology, as well as specialty cryogenic Hall sensors.

The MagCam magnetic field camera measurement platform is an advanced digital matrix magnetic field sensor that measures three-dimensional magnetic field maps with high spatial resolution at high speed. The MagCam magnetic field maps are analyzed in real time using the powerful MagScope software.

Applications include quality control of small permanent magnets and magnetic assemblies, including the full magnetization vector and its deviation angle for uniaxial magnets, multipole magnet inspection, magnet homogeneity inspection, general magnetic field mapping and materials research.

MagCam's customers include (automotive) sensor manufacturers, magnet producers, magnet suppliers, motor/generator constructors, universities, research labs and more.

MagCam offers a product range consisting of measurement hardware and software, as well as services, such as measurement services, feasibility studies and development projects.

MagCam also offers a range of highly advanced and state-of-the-art cryogenic magnetic field sensors for liquid helium temperature use, based on III-V semiconductor heterostructures. Applications include high resolution scanning Hall probe microscopy (down to 250nm) and magnetometry.

MagCam history

MagCam was founded by dr. Koen Vervaeke in 2009. During his PhD research, which he performed both at IMEC and at the Physics Department of the K.U.Leuven, Koen invented and developed the magnetic field camera, as well as state-of-the-art cryogenic Hall sensors.

The title of his PhD thesis was "Microscopic Hall sensors for magnetometry and local magnetic imaging". The initial goal of the thesis was to develop and produce microscopic low-temperature GaAs/AlGaAs Hall sensors and use them to study the magnetic field distributions of microscopic magnets and superconductors, using the scanning Hall probe microscopy technique. This technique consists of mechanically scanning a submicrometer sized Hall sensor over a sample surface, thus generating a two-dimensional image of the local magnetic stray fields.

This goal was successfully achieved and resulted in the low-temperature microscopic Hall sensors which are now in the MagCam product portfolio.

During his research, Koen worked on an even more advanced concept for digitizing magnetic stray fields. He invented a way to integrate a dense two-dimensional array with thousands of microscopic Hall sensors onto a single semiconductor chip, such that each sensor could independently measure the local magnetic field. He produced a few prototypes and provided a proof of his principle. The technology was patented.

These results were included in Koen's PhD thesis, along with his work on microscopic GaAs/AlGaAs Hall sensors and fundamental experimental work on micro- and nanoscale magnets and superconductors.

After his PhD, Koen obtained a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship from the Flemish government (IWT), during which he developed the magnetic field camera further into a market-ready product. He then started MagCam to commercialize his developments.

MagCam is continuously improving its products and tailoring them to a wide range of applications.

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