Let Adams help choose the magnet to best suit your specific sensor application requirements. We have experience designing around the effect of environmental conditions, temperature, shock, vibration, corrosion resistance, magnetic stability, manufacturability, form factor (and more!) related to the use of magnets with sensors and can help optimize the performance of your application.

Magnetic Hall Effect Sensors are popular for their versatility in sensing position, velocity and/or direction. Offering non-contact and wear-free operation, they are low maintenance, essentially ‘set it and forget it’ operation. They come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and price points. They can be as large as your fingernail or as small as a grain of sand.

To measure position, one uses a pre-defined defined magnet that moves towards/away from the sensor. The sensor detects the strength of the magnetic field and infers the location of the magnet from that data


To measure rotational position, an array of Hall Effect Sensors is used in conjunction with a diametrically oriented magnet. The magnetic field distribution in the array is used to calculate the rotational position of the magnet.


To measure velocity, one can use the same array configuration used for rotational position. Alternatively, one can position the Hall Effect Sensor off-axis and measure the pulses as the object rotates.


For help finding the magnet that’s best for your application, please contact us.

Magnets most commonly used in sensor applications: