Provided is a highly-sensitive Hall element capable of eliminating an offset voltage without increasing the chip size. The Hall element includes: a Hall sensing portion having a shape of a cross and four convex portions; Hall voltage output terminals which are arranged at the centers of the front edges of the four convex portions, respectively; and control current input terminals which are arranged on side surfaces of each of the convex portions independently of the Hall voltage output terminals. In this case, the Hall voltage output terminal has a small width and the control current input terminal has a large width.
1. A Hall sensor, comprising:
a Hall sensing portion having a shape of a cross, and having four convex portions and a fourfold axis;
Hall voltage output terminals having the same shape, arranged at centers of front edges of the four convex portions, respectively; and
control current input terminals arranged in vicinities of centers of sides of the four convex portions, respectively,
wherein, among the control current input terminals, each pair of control current input terminals arranged in line along each of the sides of opposed convex portions is connected to each other via an interconnect to have the same potential.
2. The Hall sensor according to claim 1 , wherein a width of each of the control current input terminals, which is a length of each of the control current input terminals in contact with the Hall sensing portion, is larger than a width of each of the Hall voltage output terminals, which is a length of each of the Hall voltage output terminals in contact with the Hall sensing portion.
3. The Hall sensor according to claim 1 , wherein a width of each of the control current input terminals is shorter than each of the sides.
4. The Hall sensor according to claim 1 , wherein a distance between opposing ones of the Hall voltage output terminals is larger than a distance between opposing ones of the control current input terminals.
5. A Hall sensor according to claims 1 , wherein:
the Hall sensing portion is constituted by an N-type doped region formed on a surface of a P-type semiconductor substrate;
the Hall voltage output terminals and the control current input terminals provided on both sides of the Hall voltage output terminals, respectively, are each constituted by an N-type heavily-doped region, the Hall voltage output terminals and the control current input terminals being provided at end portions of the N-type doped region; and
the Hall sensor further comprises a depletion layer suppressing region constituted by an N-type lightly-doped region which is formed to surround side surfaces and a bottom surface of the N-type doped region.
6. A Hall sensor according to claim 5 , wherein the control current input terminals and the Hall voltage output terminals are formed at the same depth from the surface of the P-type semiconductor substrate as a depth of the Hall sensing portion.
7. A Hall sensor according to claims 1 , which is capable of eliminating an offset voltage by spinning current.