Design, fabrication, and control of components in MEMS-based optical pickups

Small-form-factor optical pickups and disk drives have been an area of intense research since the rise of portable consumer electronic products. In current technology, most of the devices are manufactured by the precision assembly of discrete miniaturized optomechanical components. The assembly process can be simplified and cost reduced by using the batch fabrication processes developed in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In this paper, the fabrication and testing of optical and actuator components for a MEMS-based optical pickup are presented. A novel design methodology is also applied to the servo control system of the pickup.