Sequential vs. Parallel Synthesis for Dual-Stage Hard Disk Drives

Modern hard disk drives (HDDs) use single-input, dual-output (SIDO) controllers to control a dual-stage plant consisting of a large-stroke voice coil motor (VCM) and a short-stroke, high-bandwidth piezoelectric microactuator (PZT). Various methods have been proposed to perform the SIDO controller design; among the most commonly used approaches is μ-synthesis. While μ-synthesis generates stable controllers for the overall system, it does not guarantee stability of the VCM-only loop in the presence of microactuator saturation or failure. One approach to the DISO design that maintains VCM-only stability is the sequential design of VCM and PZT controllers. This paper presents a systematic study of sequential vs. parallel design. Designs are evaluated by comparing values of μ obtained for equivalent designs between the sequential and parallel approaches. The circle criterion is used to test stability of the system under saturation. Performance of sequential and parallel designs in shock events are tested in simulation.