The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) for improvement of capacity and performance of hard-disk drives.
A voice-coil motor (VCM) is currently used in hard–disk drives for positioning the read/write head attached to the tip of the gimbal suspension. The servo bandwidth of the head-positioning mechanism is limited by the vibration modes of the suspension, which is typically found in the kHz range. An alternative approach —
in which a microactuator carrying a read/write head is used for fine positioning in combination with a VCM for coarse positioning — is expected to improve the bandwidth and the accuracy of the tracking servo system.
To adjust the skew angle of the read/write head in hard-disk drives, we investigate the use of:
- A 3-phase Electrostatic Linear
Stepper Micromotor;
-
- A 3-phase Electrostatic Rotary
Stepper Micromotor.
The main advantages of this micromotor compared with conventional
microactuators are the open-loop operation, immunity to driving voltage input
noise and repeatability of output displacement.
Poster presented at the 19
th MicroMechanics Europe Workshop (MME 2008, Aachen, Germany).
Poster presented at the 22
nd IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS 2009, Sorrento, Italy).
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Video clip demonstrating the operation of a linear stepper motor.
