Magnetic encoders are composed of a magnetic sensor, a hard magnetic recording medium and a signal processing circuit. Electrodeposited micro-magnet arrays produced by micro-fabrication are promising recording media for enhancing encoder performance. However, two major engineering issues have yet to be resolved. One issue is an unknown relationship between the feature sizes of micro-magnet arrays and their stray field shapes, and another issue is the formation of micro-cracks due to the built-up residual stresses of thick films. In this study, we investigated the effect of feature sizes on the emanating stray field shape at various observation heights. Feature sizes include two height (i.e., film thickness) values of 78 μm and 176 μm, and both width and spacing with three values of 360 μm, 520 μm and 680 μm. Ultrasound-assisted agitation was adopted for investigating the effects of electrodepositing current densities on the film crystalline microstructures and magnetic properties. Narrowing the width of micro-magnets helps the stray field to become a sinusoidal profile. Thinner film, i.e., thickness 78 μm in this study, supports the stray field taking on a sinusoidal profile. Moreover, the spacing between the micro-magnets plays a key factor in determining the shape of the stray field. Under 37 kHz/156 W ultrasound agitation, the optimal hard magnetic properties of electrodeposited CoMnP films are residual magnetization 2329 G and coercivity 968 Oe by a current density of 10.0 mA/cm2. Ultrasound-assisted electrodeposition, along with duly designed feature size, facilitates the micro-magnet arrays having a sinusoidal stray field shape using high quality films. Furthermore, for the first time, a systematic understanding of feature-size-dependent stray field evolution and improved polarities quality has been realized for the recording media of sinusoidal magnetic encoders.
