Design and optimization of a linear actuator for subminiature optical storage devices

Recent advancements in mobile devices have fueled a requirement for information storage systems with characteristics such as subminiature size, low cost, and minimum power consumption. Small optical disk drives could provide a good solution, because their storage media is cheaper than those of hard disk drives or flash memories. In this paper, a small linear actuator that can be used to provide seeking and fine tracking for small optical disk drives was designed using structural and electromagnetic analyses. The designed actuator was optimized by applying design of experiments (DOE) and response surface method (RSM) techniques to verify the effectiveness of the initial design and further improve its performance characteristics, such as output power and compactness. The dynamic performance of the designed linear actuator was evaluated by experiments.