Abstract: The present invention provides a miniature three-axis instrument for measuring the actual magnetic field vector. The novel instrument of the invention has three magnetometers on a single chip configured such that their pickup elements are coplanar, colinear and in fairly close proximity to each other. The tip of the chip, with the three pickup elements, is fashioned to allow as close an approach to the surface to be scanned as is possible with current single magnetometer scanning microscopes. The different positions of the pickup elements on the chip is compensated for digitally after data acquisition. The z-axis magnetometer has a planar pickup coil structure as is known in the art while the x-axis and y-axis sensing elements have a novel multi-turn, thin-film structure in the form of a planar solenoid which is another novel aspect of the present invention.