IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 5, No.

1, March 1990 195

OPTIMAL DC MOTOR DESIGN FOR CONSTANT VOLTAGE SEEK MOTION

Wen-Wei Chiang
IEEE Member

IBM Research Division

Almaden Research Center
650 Harry Road
San Jose, California 95120-6099

Abstract - This paper analyzes the seek motion INTRODUCTION

(load moved between tWO . stationary po.sitins)
performance in terms of move tIme, power diSSipatIOn,
and gear coupling ratio between the load and motor
shafts, of mechanical systems driven by DC motors.
The motors considered here are operated under
constant voltage during acceler.ation, ad then . te
voltage is reversed for deceleratlo. This anlysl IS
applicable to any kind of DC motor I the electncal te
constant is very short compared ,wIth the I?echarucal
time constant and the move tIme. This scheme
minimizes the total power dissipation when linear
drivers are used. The load considered is rigid and
frictionless . The motor size in terms of power rate [1].
(torque square divided by inrtia) and . power
dissipation the motor-to-Ioad coupling (gear ratiO), and
the back EMF effect are all considered. The move time
expression is given in dimensionless form so that the
performance under all kinds of load inertia and stroke
lengths can be analyzed, and compared with each oter.
A contour plot of the normalized move tIme
shows the seek speed limitation under. any load .and
power dissipation and indicates the reglon for optImal
design. The system designer can decide immediate!y
what motor size, in terms of power rate, and gear ratio
should be chosen to meet the specified move time with
minimal power. The designer can Iso establish. te
move time specification under a given power limit.
There is no iteration required in the process.
. shall be allocated for the motor, until all possible motor
An optimal DC voice coil motor (VCM) deSign
based on the analysis result is then described
(Figure 5). The load is a rotary actuato (rotary a
carrying air bearing sliders with mgnetIc read/wte
heads and slider suspension mecharusms) for accessmg
both ides of a 3.5" diameter magnetic hard disk. Test
results indicated that the specification of 7 msec moe
time for the average length track seek was met while
using minimum power.
KEYWORDS
Optimal design, DC m?t?r, seek moion, voice
coil motor, minimum power, nurumum move tIme.
89 SM 750-1 EC A paper recommended and approved
by the IEEE Rotating Machinery Committee of the IEEE
Power Engineering Society for presentation at the
PES 1989 Summer Meeting, Long Beach, California, July 9
- 14, 1989. Manuscript submitted December 9, 1988;
made available for printing June 12, 1989.
Electrical motors are widely used for the position
and motion control of inertial loads. Loads are often
moved between stationary positions (seek motion) in
various types of machines suc? as robot liag.es,
computer disk drive read/wnte . head posltIorung
mechanisms, printer and copy machine paper . feeders,
antenna pointing systems, and laser sca!lrung. ors: It
is very desirable to move the load With nunnual tIme
when dissipating a fixed amount of power, or to meet a
specified move time while using as little power and as
small a motor as possible.
Frequently a DC motor has to be . driven by a
linear driver, because chopper (PWM) dnvers r too
noisy. A linear driver dissipates lots of power tn Itself
unless the voltage applied to the motor is close to the
power supply output voltage for the driver. Theref?re,
a driving profile with constant voltage for acceleratIOn,
followed by the same level but reversed vo.ltge or
deceleration, can minimize the total power diSSIpatIOn
even though the power dissipated iside the motor may
be higher than some other seek profiles. .
However, it is not easy for a designer either to
select a motor which is available from motor
manufacturers, or to decide the specification for . an
in-house motor design, in order to meet the. deSign
criterion such as the maximum allowable mov tI!l1e.. It
is also not easy to decide how much power dISSipatIon
choices are evaluated. The subject of "optimal" motor
and gear ratio selection procedure has been investigated
extensively in the past [2] [3] l4], but. all suggested
methods assume initially a velOCIty profile or a motor
operating point, and iterative procedurs are need.e .to
check the actual performance agamst the lrutlal
assumption.
In those processes of choosing motors, the
required acceleration is first calcula.ted from. an assumed
velocity profile meeting the move tIme requrrement, and
motor designs having sufficient torque levels are then
identified. For each motor considered, a motor-to-l<?ad
gear ratio is first assumed, and he e9.uation f moton
of the whole mechanical system IS denved for sImulatmg
the system dynamics as well as calculating the actual
move time. The results are then checked to make sure
the initially assumed velocity pofile cn be met.
Several iterations are usually requrred to fmd a motor
and the gear ratio which meet the requed move time,
and more iterations are still needed to ftnd the smallest
IEEEI motor using the least amount of power.
In addition to the difficulty in selecting motors,
there also exist some unanswered questions related to
motor design and selection. irst,.a metod to compae
different types of motor deSIgns IS lacking. and a farr
comparison is still impossible even for the .sae type of
motor designs with different loads. Also, It IS deSIrable
to know the performance limitation of electrical motors,

0885-8969/90/0300-0195$01.00 1990 iEEE

T
196
and the factors which limit the performance. Knowing
the motor limitation and its cause, the designer can
concentrate his effort in finding or designing a motor
close to the theoretical limit and obtain an "optimal"
design.
This study addresses the above questions, and
derives a systematic method to compare motor
performance under constant voltage move profile. The
method obtained can also be used as a guide for motor
selection. The purpose of this study is not to provide a
detailed analysis tool to simulate the exact system
dynamics. Rather, it is desired to understand the
important design factors and their effects on the move
time, so that a near-optimal motor design can be chosen
easily at the beginning of the design process, before the
fine tuning of all details. Therefore, the system
dynamics modeling is simplified by neglecting minor
factors, so that fewer but more important issues can be
investigated more thoroughly.
The expression of the total move time will first
be derived, and then normalized with respect to a time
constant which is determined by the load inertia,
required displacement, and the power dissipation level.
The motor and drive train designs are also expressed in
terms of two dimensionless parameters. The first is a
function of the motor torque level, power dissipation,
motor and load inertia, and the load displacement; the
second is the gear coupling ratio normalized with
respect to the load and motor inertia ratio. The trend of
variation of the normalized move time versus these two
dimensionless parameters are then analyzed. Due to the
absence of an absolute minimum move time, this
analysis identifies a range of design parameters as the
optimal design region where the system starts
decreasing its performance improvement in terms of the
move time reduction.
SEEK PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Previously published results have shown that
when the motor output force or torque are kept
constant during both acceleration and deceleration, the
move time is inversely proportional to the one-fourth
power of the power rate [lJ, if the motor-to-load gear
ratio matches the inverse square root of the inertia ratio.
However, choosing a motor with a very high power rate
may not be good because (1) it requires a very strong
magnetic field and (2) it develops high back EMF which
reduces the maximum speed under a constant voltage
supply.
The assumption of constant motor force or
torque makes the study result applicable only when the
motor speed is so small that its back EMF has little
effect on reducing the current. A constant current
source may be used to maintain constant force or
torque, but using a regulated current source does not
fully utilize the motor driver's capability when it is
limited by a fixed voltage level set by the power supply,
and hence the motion is not completed with the minimal
time. Besides, a large voltage drop across a linear driver
dissipates a large amount of power, if a noisy current
chopper (PWM) driver can not be accepted.
Assumptions
It is assumed that the load is a rigid body rotating
about a fixed pivot axis, with negligible friction and
structural flexibility. Unless the structure is extremely
flexible which has a profound effect on the optimal seek
motion profile, a feedback control system can always be
designed to suppress the structural flexibility and
minimize the settling time after a seek motion. This
feedback control seldom requires a control effort
saturating the driver voltage and current limit, therefore,
it is still the motor's torque capability which determines
how fast a particular load can be moved across a
specified seek distance, even in the presence of some
structural flexibility. For this reason, neglecting the
structural flexibility in this study can still result in useful
information concerning the motor design and
performance analysis. The study result is also
applicable to the case of linear motion as long as torque,
moment of inertia, and angular displacement are
replaced by force, mass, and linear displacement
respectively.
It is also assumed that the motor electrical time
constant (LiR) is much smaller compared to the
mechanical time constant so that the motor coil
inductance can be neglected, and the current can
change almost instantaneously. In practice, it is better
not to switch currents faster than the electrical time
constant, otherwise, the torque developed will never
reach the peak level that the motor was originally
designed for. This study considers the coil resistance
and the back EMF as the only two factors causing
currents to drop. The coil resistance is assumed fixed at
the rated operating temperature.
It is very important to choose the driving
conditions for motors since they affect the performance
and power efficiency [5]. The full voltage from power
supply is applied to the motor to minimize the total
energy dissipation [6).
System Dynamics
The general system configuration is shown in
Figure 1 where the motor with a rotor inertia J is
driving a load with an inertia JL' The motor-to- ad ro
coupling gear ratio N determmes the load angular
displacement 0L when the motor is angularly displaced
by Of- All symbols used in the analysis are listed and
explained below:
The total load shaft angular displacement for the
required seek.
The motor shaft angular position.
The total motor shaft angular displacement in the
seek.
The motor shaft angular displacement during
acceleration, from start to the switching point. It
should be chosen such that the motor can be
decelerated to stop at the destination.
N The motor-to-load coupling ratio (gear ratio),
defined as 0fiOL'
The moment of inertia of the load.
The moment of inertia of the motor rotor. '
The distance of the coil center from the motor
shaft axis.
w The motor shaft angular velocity O.
The motor shaft angular velocity at switching
point 0 = Os.
Acceleration time period.
 197
yet. The current, together with the power, reduce as the
back EMF increases with the velocity.
At the moment right after the applied voltage
polarity is reversed to start decelerating, the back EMF
adds to the reversed voltage, and generates the
maximum current through the coil during the seek. The
maximum instantaneous current is smaller, but close to,
twice that at stall. Therefore, the maximum power
delivered from the power supply (IV) is close to twice
the stall power dissipation, and the maximum power
dissipation inside the motor coil (12R) is close to four
times that at stall.
Figure 1. A rotary motor driving a rigid inertia load The stall power dissipation is also the constant
through a gear train. power dissipation in case of a system failure where all
the power supply voltage is applied to the motor coil,
td Deceleration time period. and designing the motor at that power dissipation level
ensures that the motor will not be damaged in this
tf Total move time tf = ta + td . situation. Further analysis indicates that both the
optimal design suggested by this study, and most of the
R The motor coil resistance. present sub-optimal designs dissipate average power
(I2R) almost the same as that at stall. In other words,
V The voltage applied to the motor coil. the stall power dissipation is almost the same as, or a
fixed ratio of, some power level which could possibly be
Vo The voltage limit of the motor driver set by the chosen as a practical reference level.
power supply. The system dynamics is represented by the
following set of equations of motion:
I The current flowing through the motor coil.
T
w=0 W= (1)
10 The motor current at stall , determined by
1m + hlN
2
VOiR.
Po The motor power dissipation at stall, 102R .
T = KI , (2)
T Motor torque.
and

TO Motor torque at stall when I= 10 .

V = IR + Kw , (3)
K The motor torque constant Til, which is
where V = V0 during the acceleration and V = - V
numerically identical to the back EMF sensitivity Q
in MKS system. during the deceleration period. Equations (1) to (3)
can be arranged as
Pr Motor power rate at stall T02/1rn .
(4)
Both the power dissipation by the motor (12R),
and the power delivered by the power supply (IV)
change with time during the seek. However, a certain during acceleration period, and
power level has to be chosen as the reference, so that all
motor design parameters can be optimized to minimize w +=-A
T
(5)
the move time under certain power dissipation level, or
to minimize this power level while meeting all the seek
requirements. during deceleration period, where
The average of the instantaneous power
2
dissipation by the motor (1 R) should not be chosen as
the reference, because doing this will result in a motor T= (6)
design requiring a very high magnetic field, which
generates high torque with virtually no current. Under
this circumstance, it will be impractical to use the is the mechanical time constant, and
average power as the reference, because the amount of
the kinetic energy required to accelerate the load will KVo
become dominant, and the capacity of the power supply A = ---""::--- (7)
as well as that of the motor driver have to be considered (Jm + IdN2)R
to meet that energy requirement, no matter whether or
not the electronic circuit can recover this energy when is the motor shaft acceleration at start (w = 0).
the load decelerates. Solving (4) gives the expression of the
The reason for choosing the motor power acceleration time period
dissipation at stall, or at the start of the seek when there
is no velocity, as the reference level is explained as
follows. The power dissipated by the motor loss (102R) (8)
at stall is the same as that delivered from the power
supply (lo VO )' because there is no back EMF developed
and the acceleration angular displacement
198
2 Ws resistance is the only major part of the energy loss of
Os = AT In(1 T
- -
AT ) - Ws (9) the whole system considered, and this loss is almost
independent of the wire size as long as the total coil
volume and the volumetric power density are fixed.
Similarly, solving (5) gives the the expression of the Because the current changes due to the back EMF
deceleration time period effect, the motor power dissipation at stall shall be (PO)
used as the reference, as was explained earlier. In order
to utilize as little power as possible, it is essential to
(10) know the theoretical minimum power required.

and the deceleration angular displacement NormaIization Procedure For Move Time
The variable
(11)
(15)

The motor velocity at the switching point should be having a unit of time, and depending on the load
chosen as condition as well as the power dissipation level, can be
defined to normalize all time variables.
A dimensionless variable a is then defined as
(12)

to yield a complete stop at the destination (0 = Of), and == (hOL2)1/6 / To2

a
the total move time can then be expressed as
P02/3 V 1m (16)
t f = ta + td

- (13)
= v'f3Pr!Po = v'f3/Tm
= : +2 Tin 1 + ( v'1 _
e or!AT2
)
where the mechanical time constant [1] [2] of the motor
itself (no load) is
Equation (13) can be used to calculate the move
time of any motor chosen to drive any given inertia load
for any seek distance, as long as the driving condition (17)
meets the earlier assumptions. However, this equation
does not indicate the performance limitation, neither
does it indicate how the system design should be a2 can be considered as the inverse of the motor
modified for improvement. The effect of all possible mechanical time constant normalized with respect to the
design changes ( such as changing the motor power time constant {3. a2 is also the motor power rate per unit
input, increasing torque by using stronger magnetic power dissipation (Pr/PO)'
normalized with respect to
fields, and altering the gear ratio, etc.) on the the time constant {3.
performance can only be evaluated when the move time Finally, the motor-to-load coupling (gear ratio N)
is calculated for each possible design change, and all is normalized with respect to the square root of the
previously published procedures of selecting motor or inertia ratio as
deciding the motor specification are still iterative.
N
Move Time Expression y == ---"':""'--- (18)
v'h/lm
Substituting (6) and (7) into (13) yields the
move time
The cases where y assumes the value of unity are
sometimes referred as "inertia match" [1] [5].
NOL (Jm + h/N2)R The move time expression (14) can now be
K + 2
tf= -y--
2 represented in the normalized form as
o
K --
_ __,---___-,----- (14)
tf
v'1 e
-
NBLK3/VO(Jrn + JdN2)R
) l +1
-=ya+2 ---
x In 1 +
( f3
_

(ya)2 (19)
-------------

which can be normalized to indicate the performance x In 1+ v'1 _ e-

limitation, and to compare the performance of different
motor designs.
The load condition should be determined first.
The mechanical part moved by the motor should have
been designed already by the time the motor is being
selected. Therefore, the load condition can be
expressed as JLOL2
.
The electncal power dissipation level should also
be decided before comparing motor performance. It is
unfair and meaningless to compare the move time of
different motors with a large difference in power
dissipation. The heat loss (I2R) due to the motor coil
3 2)
(ya ) /( 1 +Y )
( .
This normalized form is very useful in the motor
performance analysis because the system characteristics
such as the load and driving condition, the motor
characteristic, and the motor-to-Ioad coupling ratio are
all represented by three variables, namely {3, a , and y.
The time constant {3 depends on the load
condition (JLOL2) and the motor power dissipation
(PO
= I02R) as shown in (15), but it is not affected by
the motor selected. Therefore, it provides a fixed base
to compare move time for different motors.

The motor characteristic (power rate Pr or the
mechanical time constant 7" rn) is represented by the
variable a. The appearance of the load condition
(JL8L2) and the motor power dissipation (PO I02R) =
in the expression of this variable has no adverse effect
since they are both fixed in each case of motor
comparison. The value of the variable a will not be
affected by the motor-to-load coupling ratio (N) unless
changing the latter alters the structure of the load or the
motor appreciably. In the case where the load is driven
directly, the motor-to-Ioad coupling ratio (N) is fixed to
unity; but the motor inertia (Jm) can still be changed by
adjusting the distance of the motor coil from the
rotation axis, which in terms offers the flexibility of
adjusting the normalized coupling ratio y.
Analysis Results
The normalized move time expression (19) is a
function with two arguments, therefore, its value can be
calculated and expressed in a three-dimensional plot as
shown in Figure 2. It can also be shown in a contour
plot as in Figure 3. It can be seen that the normalized
move time tf//3 approaches its minimum as a
approaches infmity while y 1.3182/a, by following
=
the dotted line to the upper-left corner of the contour
plot.
Figure 3 is useful to evaluate the motor seek
performance under a given load condition and power
dissipation. First, the values of the two dimensionless
variable a and y for any motor driven system can be
calculated and located on the plot, and then it becomes
obvious immediately how the system should be modified
(by changing the motor-to-load coupling ratio, or
selecting a motor of a different power rate) to achieve a
better performance. The same contour plot is also a
useful tool for the task of initial motor selection. The
performance of all possible choices of motors can be
located on the plot and compared, before the most
suitable one is selected.
It can also be seen that there exists an optimal
coupling ratio (y y*) to achieve the minimal move
=
time, for each value of the motor characteristic a. The
dotted line in Figure 3 indicates the location of such
optimal coupling ratio y* versus the corresponding
motor characteristic a. The optimal coupling ratio y*
keeps its value constant at unity for small motor power
rate (a < 1), and becomes smaller as the motor power
rate increases. For small values of a, the move time is
small compared with the motor mechanical time
constant, and the motor torque can be maintained at a
constant level because the back EMF is still small. The
predicted optimal coupling ratio (yo,d) at this
condition agrees with all previously published results
(JLiJrn) O.S [1].
requiring a matched coupling ratio N =
As a is increased by having a large motor power rate,
the motor speed becomes higher and the back EMF has
a larger effect on reducing the current and the motor
torque. Therefore, the coupling should be changed to
reduce the motor to load shaft speed ratio. The optimal
coupling y* approaches the asymptotic value of
1.3182/a for very large motor power rate.
Figure 4 shows the minimal normalized move
time versus the motor characteristic a when the
corresponding optimal coupling ratio y* is chosen along
the dotted line in Figure 3. The minimal normalized
move time decreases as the motor power rate increases
for a < 2, and then approaches a fixed value of 2.086
for higher range of a. This asymptotic value is the
theoretical limit in the motor seek performance, which
means that the move time is limited by the value of the
199
100
tflf3
40
20
10
4
2
Q-
y
Figure 2. Normalized move time. tr//3 as a function
of the motor characteristic a and coupling
ratio y.
time constant /3. determined by the load condition
(JL8L2) and the power dissipation level PO. No seek
can be faster than this limit no matter how large the
motor power rate (or a) may be. A motor with large
torque constant resulting in a large power rate also has
a high back EMF effect which reduces the maximum
speed. The only way to reduce the move time is either
by reducing the load inertia or by increasing the power
dissipation level if the performance limitation is already
approached in a given design.
The curve of minimal move time shown in
Figure 4 indicates that the motor characteristic should
be chosen with a value of a between 1 and 2 , with the
corresponding move time ranging from 1.40 to 1.13
times of the absolute minimal under the same load
condition and power dissipation level. that is. with
tf//3 2.93 2.36 .
= This range of value of a
corresponds to the range from 1 to 0.6 for the optimal
selection of y, as shown in Figure 3. Higher values of a
require motors using larger magnets while having little
effect on reducing the move time, and lower values of a
require more power to achieve the same seek speed.
The choice of the optimal design point should
reflect the fact that the values of a may change
significantly if the moment of inertia of the coupling
gears, or that of the VCM coil support structure are
large and change their values appreciably when varying
the gear coupling ratio or the VCM coil location. This
will be explained later in detail in the section of "Motor
The analysis described in
Selection Procedure".
previous paragraphs for the optimal gear ratio y* versus
a shown in Figure 3, and the curve of the
corresponding minimal move time shown in Figure 4
assumes that the value of a does not change when
varying the coupling ratio y .
MOTOR SELECTION PROCEDURE
A motor selection procedure based on the
normalized move time analysis is derived and described
below. The motor and gear ratio can be determined
without iteration in the selection process, and no
velocity profile has to be assumed either. This same
procedure can also be used to determine th motor
specification if a special motor need to be deSigned to
drive a particular load. This procedure consists of the
following non-iterative five steps:

The motor characteristic (power rate Pr or the
mechanical time constant Tm) is represented by the
variable a. The appearance of the load condition
(h8L2) and the motor power dissipation (PO = I02R)
in the expression of this variable has no adverse effect
since they are both fixed in each case of motor
comparison. The value of the variable a will not be
affected by the motor-to-load coupling ratio (N) unless
changing the latter alters the structure of the load or the
motor appreciably. In the case where the load is driven
directly, the motor-to-load coupling ratio (N) is fixed to
unity; but the motor inertia (1Jll ) can still be changed by
adjusting the distance of the motor coil from the
rotation axis, which in terms offers the flexibility of
adjusting the normalized coupling ratio y.
Analysis Results
The normalized move time expression (19) is a
function with two arguments, therefore, its value can be
calculated and expressed in a three-dimensional plot as
shown in Figure 2. It can also be shown in a contour
plot as in Figure 3. It can be seen that the normalized
move time tf//3 approaches its mi nimum as a
approaches infmity while y = 1.31821 a, by following
the dotted line to the upper-left corner of the contour
plot.
Figure 3 is useful to evaluate the motor seek
performance under a given load condition and power
dissipation. First, the values of the two dimensionless
variable a and y for any motor driven system can be
calculated and located on the plot, and then it becomes
obvious immediately how the system should be modified
(by changing the motor-to-load coupling ratio, or
selecting a motor of a different power rate) to achieve a
better performance. The same contour plot is also a
useful tool for the task of initial motor selection. The
performance of all possible choices of motors can be
located on the plot and compared, before the most
suitable one is selected.
It can also be seen that there exists an optimal
coupling ratio (y = y*) to achieve the minimal move
time, for each value of the motor characteristic a. The
dotted line in Figure 3 indicates the location of such
optimal coupling ratio y* versus the corresponding
motor characteristic a. The optimal coupling ratio y*
keeps its value constant at unity for small motor power
rate ( 0: < 1), and becomes smaller as the motor power
rate increases. For small values of a, the move time is
small compared with the motor mechanical time
constant, and the motor torque can be maintained at a
constant level because the back EMF is still small. The
predicted optimal coupling ratio (y*'" 1) at this
condition agrees with all previously published results
requiring a matched coupling ratio N = (JL/Jm) o.S [1].
As a is increased by having a large motor power rate,
the motor speed becomes higher and the back EMF has
a larger effect on reducing the current and the motor
torque. Therefore, the coupling should be changed to
reduce the motor to load shaft speed ratio. The optimal
coupling y
* approaches the asymptotic value of
1.3182/a for very large motor power rate.
Figure 4 shows the minimal normalized move
time versus the motor characteristic a when the
*
corresponding optimal coupling ratio y is chosen along
the dotted line i n Figure 3. The minimal normalized
move time decreases as the motor power rate increases
for a < 2, and then approaches a fixed value of 2.086
for higher range of a. This asymptotic value is the
theoretical limit in the motor seek performance, which
means that the move time is limited by the value of the
199
100
'tiP
40
20
10
4
2
y
Figure 2. Normalized move time. tf//3 as a function
of the motor characteristic a and coupling
ratio y .
time constant /3, determined by the load condition
(JL8L2) and the power dissipation level PO. No seek
can be faster than this limit no matter how large the
motor power rate (or a) may be. A motor with large
torque constant resulting in a large power rate also has
a high back EMF effect which reduces the maximum
speed. The only way to reduce the move time is either
by reducing the load inertia or by inrasig t e power
dissipation level if the performance limitatIon IS already
approached in a given design.
The curve of minimal move time shown in
Figure 4 indicates that the motor characteristic should
be chosen with a value of a between 1 and 2 , with the
corresponding move time ranging from 1 .40 to 1.13
times of the absolute minimal under the same load
condition and power dissipation level, that is, with
tf//3 = 2.93 2.36 . This range of value of a
corresponds to the range from 1 to 0.6 for the optimal
selection of y, as shown in Figure 3. Higher values of a
require motors using larger magnets while having little
effect on reducing the move time, and lower values of a
require more power to achieve the same seek speed.
The choice of the optimal design point should
reflect the fact that the values of a may change
significantly if the moment of inertia of the coupling
gears' or that of the VCM coil support structure are
large and change their values appreciably when varying
the gear coupling ratio or the VCM coil location. This
will be explained later in detail in the section of "Motor
Selection Procedure". The analysis described in
previous paragraphs for the optimal gear ratio y" versus
a shown in Figure 3, and the curve of the
corresponding minimal move time shown in Figure 4
assumes that the value of a does not change when
varying the coupling ratio y .
MOTOR SELECTION PROCEDURE
A motor selection procedure based on the
normalized move time analysis is derived and described
below. The motor and gear ratio can be determined
without iteration in the selection process, and no
velocity profile has to be assumed either. This same
procedure can also be used to determine th motor
specification if a special motor need to be deSIgned to
drive a particular load. This procedure consists of the
following non-iterative five steps:
 201

10

B KGaussi
50

a 1

---:--c-=-:-:,m

t
,.
2.25
?'>C)
2.75
Ii .300
t. 350
" 400

- : ---

Figure 5. Assembly drawing of the 3.5" disk drive Figure 6. VCM design parameters. a and y versus the
actuator/VCM test system. It achieves 7.2 magnetic field strength B and the coil
msec move time for average seek. location re'

1.84 x 10-6 kg-m2, which is the load inertia (JL). The each curve is plotted for a different magnetic field
average move distance corresponds to 0.116 radian of strength in the gap, ranging from 3.5 to 6.5 KGauss, as
rotation angle (8d. is shown in Figure 6. Overlaying Figure 6 on top of
The normalized move time is picked up from the Figure 3, it is observed that the curve corresponding to
knee of the curve in Figure 4 with a value of 5.5 KGauss is tangent to the normalized move time
tf/f3 = 2.93. The time constant f3 2.39 msec can be
= contour tf/f3 2.93 at an operating point where
=

calculated based on the 7 msec move time requirement. a = 1.09 and y = 0.607. This optimal design point
corresponds to a distance of 20 mm from the actuator
(2) Motor Power Dissipation pivot axis to the coil center point. A distance shorter
than this is not considered due to geometric constraints.
The VCM stall power dissipation required is then The actual coil dimensions are then decided accordingly
determined and it is Po (IL8L2)/f33 = 1.82 watts.
=
which result in 444 turns in total. The resulting
moments of inertia are Ie 4.48 x 10-7 kg-m 2 for the
(3) Motor Characteristic and Normatized Coupling Ratio
=

aluminum coil, Js 2.29 x 10-7 kg-m2 for the coil

=

Aluminum wire is used to make the coil for its supporting structure and a total of Jm Ie + Js =

lowest product of the mass density and electrical
resistivity among aU metals, because the coil material
with the smallest density-resistivity product can achieve
the fastest motion while using the same amount of
power [7].
The voltage applied to the coil during both the
acceleration and deceleration is fixed at 11.52 volts, so
that the motor driver can be powered by the standard
12 volt supply commonly used in personal computers.
The current at stall, 10 = 0.158A can be calculated
accordingly. The current density, 0.08 mm2/ A is
chosen based on previous experience as the maximum
value which will not suffer overheating. It is found that
the wire size required is 5 mils in diameter, Le. 36
A WG. The coil resistance required is 72.9 g, calculated
= 6.77 x 10-7 kg-m2 for the so called "motor rotor".
The torque constant is 0.157 N-m/A for this design.
Tests on the VCM coil measures an inductance
of 8 mH, which corresponds to an electrical time
constant (L/R) of 11O"s, very short compared with the
desired 7 msec move time. Therefore, the assumption
of negligible coil inductance throughout the analysis is
not violated.
(4) Motor Power Rate Requirement
All major parameters for the VCM design have
been determined now, but the important
figure-of-merit, power rate, is still calculated as
Pr a2PO//3
= 905 watts/sec just for reference.
=

from the voltage and current derived earlier, and it is

then determined that the total length of the wire for the
coil is 26.8 meters. The mass of the aluminum wire for
the coil is me
= 9.03 x 1 0-4 kg .
(5) Motor-To-Load Coupling Ratio
The actual coupling ratio has already been fixed
to N 1 for direct drive design, but the optimal
=

A flat coil design geometry is chosen for the
VCM, and it is found that only 53.2% of the wire in
the coil is located inside the magnetic field and produces
useful torque. Geometrical analysis indicated that the
moment of inertia of the coil about the actuator pivot
axis depends on the distance re of the coil from the
pivot axis as Je = 1.24mefc2 ; and the moment of inertia
of the coil supporting structure is Js = 1.43re4 when a
heat resistant plastic material is used.
Subsequent analysis generated a family of curves
showing the variation of dimensionless parameters a away from the desired range of motion, but the driver
and y as the distance re of the coil from the actuator
pivot axis changes, ranging from 20 to 45 mm; and
normalized coupling ratio was selected as y = 0.607 by
choosing the optimal coil position, as is described in
step (3).
TEST RESULTS
Alternating 12 volts is applied to the VCM coil
to test the actuator speed during seek. An optical
encoder is attached to the rotating shaft to measure the
angular displacement. The encoder signal is fed back to
the VCM driver to prevent the actuator from drifting
circuit is designed in such a way that constant and
alternately-reversed voltage is applied to the VCM coil.

-,-----r--- ---- - --
202
-v
-I
-8
Figure 7. Test results of the 3.5" rotary
actuator/VCM test system. The alternating
constant coil voltage (V), coil current (I),
and angular position (6) are shown. 7.2
msec is required to move between extreme
positions.
The period of the alternating voltage is adjusted
to obtain 0.116 radian peak-to-peak angular
displacement. Test results are recorded on a storage
oscilloscope, and are shown in Figure 7, which
confirms that 7.2 msec is required to move the actuator
across 1/3 of the data band. It is not surprising that the
actual move time is 0.2 msec longer than the design
goal, because the 110p.s electrical time constant caused
by the coil inductance was neglected in analysis, plus
the optical encoder adds 2 x 10-7 kg-m2 to the rotary
actuator inertia.
CONCLUSION
This analysis reveals the move time limitation for
any given load condition under any fixed power
dissipation level. It also indicates, in terms of the'
dimensionless motor characteristic a , where the effect
of increased motor power rate starts to decrease. Motor
performance can be analyzed by using the normalized
move time contour plot when taking into account the
load condition and power dissipation level, and the
optimal design operating point is identified on the same
contour plot.
A non-iterative procedure for motor selection
based on the analysis result is given. The same
procedure can also be used to set the specification if it is
required to design a motor for a specific load. It is also
demonstrated that this procedure can be used to
successfully design a VCM for a directly driven rotary
actuator, achieving a specified move time with as little
power as possible. Test results confirm that the
performance is as good as prediction.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Special thanks is given to Robert Mizrahi who
helped in the detailed design and drawing for all
mechanical parts of the test system built for this
research project.
REFERENCES
1. Frank Arnold and John G. Floresta; "Power Rate
A Most Important Figure-Of-Merit FoOr
Incremental Motion Designer", Proceedings of the
Thirteenth Annual Symposium on Incremenlal
Motion Control System and Devices (Champaign,
Illinois, May, 1984) pp. ll-Ut
2. George C. Newton, Jr.; "Selecting The Optimum
Electric Servomotor For Incremental Positioning
Applications", Proceedings of the Tenlh Annual
Symposium on Incremental Motion Control System
and Devices (Champaign, Illinois, June, 1981) pp.
353-362.
3. Jaroslav Tomasek; "Selecting A DC Servo System
For Optimum Load Matching", Proceedings of the
Thirteenth Annual Symposium on Incremental
Motion Control System and Devices (Champaign,
Illinois, May, 1984) pp. 1-10.
4. Portescap U.S.; "Determination Of Stepper Motor
/ Driver / Coupling Ratio (MDR) Combination
Using A Standardized Analog Method", Portescap
U.S. Technically Speaking TN-6, TN-7, TN-9
(Valley Forge, PA.)
5. Jacob Tal and Stephen Kahne; "Control and
Component Selection for Incremental Motion
Systems", Automatica, Vol. 9 (Pergamon Press,
1973) pp. 501-507.
6. J. Arthur Wagner; "The Actuator In High
Performance Disk Drives: Design Rules For
Minimum Access Time" IEEE Transactions On
Magnetics, Vol. MAG-19, No. 5 (September,
1983) pp. 1686-1688.
7. Wyatt S. Newman; "Design Optimization of A
High Speed Scanner Motor for An Infrarf:d
Imaging Device", Proceedings of the Fifteenth
Annual Symposium on Incremental Motion Conlrol
System and Devices (Champaign, Illinois, June,
1986) pp. 111-125.
BIOGRAPHY
Wen-Wei Chiang (IEEE member), born in Taipd,
Taiwan on 4/4/55. He received B.S. in M.E. at
Taiwan University in 1977, M.S. in M.E. at Caltech Jin
1980, and Ph.D. in Aero. & Astro. at Stanford
University in 1986. He analyzed space craft attitude
dynamiCS and control when employed part time by Fore
Aerospace between 1981 and 1985. He joined IBM
Research Center since 1985, and has been working on
motor position control and optimal design. He is also a
member of AIAA.