Physica C 378381 (2002) 14041407

www.elsevier.com/locate/physc

Metal detector based on high-Tc RF SQUID

D.F. He
b

a,*

, M. Yoshizawa

a
Iwate Industrial Promotion Center, Morioka 020-0045, Japan
Faculty of Engineering, Iwate University, Morioka 020-8551, Japan

Received 27 September 2001; accepted 31 January 2002

Abstract
Metal detector has many applications in food industries, wood board plants, safety security and landmine searching.
Using eddy-current method, we constructed a metal detector based on high-Tc RF SQUID, and aluminum particle as
small as 10 mg could be easily detected. A small ferrous particle in food wrapped by aluminum lm could also be
detected when a lower excitation frequency of 30 Hz was used. We also proved mobile RF SQUID magnetometer was
possible and we will use it to detect metal or concrete structures buried in underground.
2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 85.25.Dq; 81.70.Ex
Keywords: SQUID; Eddy-current; Metal detector

1. Introduction
Metal detectors have been used in food industries, wood board plants, security guarantee, and
landmine detections. In conventional metal detector, there are two coils: a transmitter coil to create
electromagnetic eld and a receiver coil to receive
the electromagnetic eld produced by the eddycurrent in the metal nearby. The excitation frequency for conventional metal detector is normally
from several tens of KHz to several MHz.
We once developed a metal detection system
based on a HTS RF SQUID (superconducting

Corresponding author. Address: Yoshizawas Lab., Faculty

of Engineering, Iwate University, Morioka 020-8551, Japan.
Tel.: +81-19-621-6356; fax: +81-19-621-6373.
E-mail addresses: hdf@iwate-techno.com (D.F. He), yoshizawa@iwate-u.ac.jp (M. Yoshizawa).

quantum interference device) planar gradiometer

[1]. Using it, a tin solder particle as small as 30 mg
could be successfully detected and the dierent
kind of metal could also be discriminated by analyzing the phase signals. In this paper, we will
report our new results about metal detection using
HTS RF SQUID.

2. Setup of experiment
The block diagram of the SQUID-based metal
detection system was shown in Fig. 1. It included
an xy stage, an excitation coil, HTS RF SQUID,
a lock-in amplier and a computer. When there
was metal near to the excitation coil, eddy-current
would be induced in the metal. The SQUID was
used to measure the magnetic eld produced by the
eddy-current. The lock-in amplier could measure

0921-4534/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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D.F. He, M. Yoshizawa / Physica C 378381 (2002) 14041407

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Fig. 2. The sine wave was the background signal produced by

the excitation eld before compensation. The line in the middle
was the background signal after compensation.

Fig. 1. The block diagram of the SQUID-based metal detection

system.

the amplitude and the phase of SQUID output

signal. The computer was used for controlling the
movement of xy stage, data acquisition and data
processing.
We used HTS RF SQUID planar gradiometer
and HTS RF SQUID magnetometer in our measurements; both of them were made by Juelich
Research Center in Germany [2,3]. The gradient
eld sensitivity of thep planar gradiometer was
about 0.5ppT/(3.6 mm Hz) at 1 kHz and 2 pT/
(3.6 mm Hz) at 20 Hz in our laboratory. The
baseline of the planar gradiometer was 3.6 mm.
The eld sensitivity of the 3.5 mm
p RF SQUID
magnetometer was about 200 fT= Hz. Both the
planar gradiometer and magnetometer could work
stably in unshielded environment.
The excitation coil was a 10-turn double-D coil
with the diameter of 2 cm. Before experiment, the
position of the coil should be adjusted to make the
SQUID output signal as small as possible. Usually, there was still big background signal left after
adjustment. To compensate the background signal
produced by the excitation coil, the excitation sine
wave was also sent to the feedback coil of the
SQUID (the compensation method is shown in

Fig. 1). By adjusting the phase and the amplitude

of this signal, the background signal could be
compensated very well, which was shown in Fig. 2.

3. Experiments and results

Using the RF SQUID planar gradiometer, a
small piece of aluminum with the size of 1 mm 
2 mm  2 mm and the mass of about 10 mg could
be detected. The signal was shown in Fig. 3. The
excitation frequency was 2.6 kHz and the current
ow in the excitation coil was about 20 mA.
Using HTS RF SQUID magnetometer, smaller
metal could be detected. Fig. 4 showed the signal
produced by a piece of copper with the size of
0:1 mm  2 mm  2 mm and the mass of 2.6 mg.
Some kinds of food are wrapped with aluminum lm to keep fresh. Fig. 5 showed the signal of
a 10 mg ferrous particle detected by the HTS RF
SQUID-based metal detector when the excitation
frequency was 30 Hz. The ferrous particle was
hidden in the food wrapped with aluminum
package with the size of 2 cm  2:5 cm  6 cm and
thickness of about 50 lm. But conventional metal
detector could not nd it, because the excitation
frequency of conventional metal detector is high
and the signal produced by small ferrous particle
will be covered by the big signal produced by the
aluminum lm.

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D.F. He, M. Yoshizawa / Physica C 378381 (2002) 14041407

Fig. 3. The amplitude signal produced by a small piece of

aluminum with the size of 1 mm  2 mm  2 mm, which was
measured by HTS RF SQUID planar gradiometer.

Fig. 5. The signal produced by a small ferrous particle in food

wrapped with aluminum lm, which was detected by HTS RF
SQUID magnetometer and the excitation frequency was about
30 Hz.

Fig. 4. The signal produced by a piece of copper with the size of

0:1 mm  2 mm  2 mm, which was measured by HTS RF
SQUID magnetometer.

We have developed a mobile HTS RF SQUID

magnetometer by using a special compensation
method. The HTS RF SQUID magnetometer
could keep lock-in when it swung in the earth
magnetic eld. Fig. 6 showed the SQUID output
signals when the SQUID magnetometer was static
and swinging in the earth eld. The frequency of
swinging was about 1 Hz and the amplitude was
about 20. We could see the earth eld had very
small inuence to it. We will use this system to nd
metal or concrete structures buried in deep underground.

Fig. 6. The output signal of the mobile HTS RF SQUID

magnetometer when it was static or swinging 20 in the earth
magnetic eld.

4. Conclusion and discussion

Using HTS RF planar gradiometer and magnetometer, 10 mg aluminum and 2.6 mg copper
could be successfully detected. The smallest metal
that conventional metal detector can detect is
about 10 mg. The SQUID-based metal detector
could also be used to detect the small ferrous
particle mixed in the food with aluminum package,

D.F. He, M. Yoshizawa / Physica C 378381 (2002) 14041407

which could not be detected by conventional metal

detector. We developed a mobile HTS SQUID
magnetometer, which will be used to detect metal
or concrete structures buried in deep underground.

Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support of Japan Science
and Technology Corporation under the Jointresearch Project for Regional Intensive in Iwate
Prefecture on Development of practical applications of magnetic eld technology for use in the
region and in everyday living. We also wish to

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thank Prof. N. Yoshimoto, Dr. Y. Nakanishi and

Mr. M. Nakamula for their helps.
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