Defect detection in conductive plates represents an
important issue. The work presents the usage of a novel uniform eddy current probe (UECP) architecture that includes a magnetometer sensor based on a set of giant magnetoresistances as part of a non-destructive testing (NDT) system developed using a virtual instrument system technology. A practical approach concerning the UECP design and implementation and experimental results obtained on cracks and non-uniformities of
welding lines performed in aluminum plates are presented. A comparison between the proposed novel eddy current probe architecture and the GMR pancake eddy current probe is included in the paper