A Survey of Control Issues in Optical Data Storage Systems

This paper presents a survey of control issues in optical storage data systems. Servo control has the important role of moving the optical pick to a track and regulating it to read and write data along the track. The performance of the servo system determines total system performance, such as access time, data rate, and latency. In this regard, we review servo control systems and walk readers through key issues of servo control technology. We also discuss servo control issues in some new storage technologies, such as near-field recording systems. Although optical data storage systems are highly precise mechatronic systems, they have not yet been considered extensively in the literature of the control engineering society. This review provides a description of servo control issues in optical data storage systems from specification to implementation of control theory. We thus believe that this paper will be useful for readers practicing control theory both in academia and in industry.