Enhancement of PZT embedded swing arm actuator using integrated read/write performance and actuation

The current technological challenges associated with the rotary-type seesaw arm actuator for small-form-factor (SFF) disk drives are the small skew focusing, which causes off-axis aberrations and reduces optical quality. This article develops a novel design for a seesaw arm actuator and suspension assembly that is based on a micro-PZT actuator to position pickup head. Dual-stage actuation relaxes the dynamic requirement on the focusing stroke. The proposed actuator with a tilt-compensation mechanism uses a PZT bender to drive pickup head focusing. This combined system, optical module and dual stage actuator, is effectively self-aligned the optical axis for read/write performance in both experiment and simulation result. Finite element modeling and dynamic measurements reveal significant improvements in the actuator bandwidth with and without micro-PZT actuator compensation.