Tracking actuators for high-speed magneto optical disk drives.

Abstract

Magneto optical disk systems have recently come into use. However, magnetooptical disk drives have certain disadvantages compared to magnetic hard disk drives such as low access speed and low data rate. A small, light optical head and high-speed rotation of the disk would improve the performance, as well as achieving over write. This paper details the development of small, light tracking actuators, which can be used in high-speed disk rotation and make the optical head small. The actuator suspension, which raises the frequencies of higher order mechanical resonance, is discussed. Also, the cross leaf spring suspension a with visco elastic damping layer is employed as the result of the theoretical analysis. We also evaluated the vibration characteristics of the actuator experimentally. The results show that the frequencies of higher order mechanical resonance are above 60 kHz. A moving magnet motor drives the actuator. The design and performance of this motor are clarified.