The first fifty THM1176 magnetometers, produced in mid-2008, were sold in record time. Metrolab’s new-generation Hall effect magnetometer is now ready for mass production, scheduled for January 2009. The THM1176 is equipped with a revolutionary sensor developed by Senis, with a microscopic three-axis Hall device that measures all three components for field strengths of up to 20 T.
But the launch of this major innovation, the fruit of several years of work, is not an end in itself for Metrolab: it is just the start! Philip Keller, Metrolab’s Marketing and Product Manager, declares, "Now that we have survived the THM1176 development, we are determined to ensure it benefits as many applications as possible!" The idea is perfectly simple: the THM1176 is a major step forward irrespective of the sensor used. Specifically, the three-axis capability, the extremely compact construction, the plug-and-play USB interface, operation as either a computer peripheral or as a portable instrument, strict adherence to instrumentation standards, powerful software support, and suitability for integration into probe arrays for mapping – the team is now going to transpose this tremendous potential onto a whole range of new sensors. There are already three projects in the pipeline.

Low intensities and low cost
The first line of work concerns low-intensity fields. Philip Keller says, "We are preparing a THM1176 model for fields between 1 µT and 8 mT, especially suitable for fringe-field mapping. It will be based on a commercially available high-sensitivity Hall sensor."  Metrolab has already tested prototypes of this sensor integrated into its instrument. The "low field" version of the Magnetic Endoscope could be operational by mid-2009.
Another avenue being explored is the development of lower-cost probes. Many applications do not require the advanced capabilities of the Senis sensor, but could derive tremendous benefits from the THM1176 system concept. Philip Keller hastens to add: “Some customers tell us that they want a magnetometer that costs less than $1000, so that they can buy one without going through their company’s capital-equipment approval procedure. That price point is probably not realistic for us, but we will do our level best to make the uncontested advantages of three-axis magnetometers as widely available as possible.”