Mastering high-density optical disks: a new concept design

Mastering high-density optical disks, like the Blu-ray(TM) disk, requires new equipment design. Active magnetic bearing technology seem well suitable for this purpose, but challenges arise in obtaining the required extreme accuracy. Creating a very low mechanical coupling between the system and the external world is the potential solution to this challenge pursued in this paper. Design considerations on actuators, amplifiers, sensors and overall design are discussed and the system performance is predicted using an error-budgeting estimation. This prediction indicates the feasibility of the concept, while the first prototype has been assembled and is being tested.