On disk drive servo performance improvements via dual-stage actuators

This paper is to demonstrate performance improvements via a dual-stage actuator in disk drive track follow, seek in microactuator range, and settling. A discrete-time dual-stage actuator control system is designed for a disk drive with a MEMS active slider microactuator made by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT). The control system is designed based on a very compact dual-stage actuator model. Servo performance is tested through simulations. The usefulness of the dual-stage actuator and control technique is demonstrated.