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.
![](./images/acrobat.gif)
Poster presented at the
19
th MicroMechanics Europe Workshop
(MME 2008, Aachen, Germany).
![](./images/acrobat.gif)
Poster presented at the
22
nd IEEE International Conference
on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS 2009,
Sorrento, Italy). Â
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