MAGNETIC BEARINGS FOR A HIGH PERFORMANCE OPTICAL DISK BUFFER

THE ADVENT OF OPTICAL DISK RECORDING TECHNOLOGY HAS MADE POSSIBLE A FAMILY OF HIGH-DATA-RATE, HIGH CAPABILITY MEMORY DEVICES. THESE DEVICES PROVIDE GIGABIT-PER-SECOND DATA RATES AND TERABIT CAPABILITY THROUGH THE USE OF ARRAYS OF SOLID STATE LASERS APPLIED TO AN OPTICAL DISK STACK. BEARINGS ARE AN ENABLING TECHNOLOGY AREA WHERE IMPROVEMENTS ARE REQUIRED TO ALLOW THESE SYSTEMS TO BE UTILIZED IN SPACE APPLICATIONS. AIR BEARINGS, UTILIZED IN GROUND BASED SYSTEMS ARE IMPRACTICAL IN SPACE. EXPERIENCE WITH ROLLING ELEMENT BEARINGS HAS BEEN LIMITED AND UNSATISFACTORY. WITH PROPER DEVELOPMENT, MAGNETIC BEARINGS REPRESENT AN IDEAL CANDIDATE FOR BOTH THE TRANSLATIONAL AND ROTATION STAGES OF THESE DEVICES. THEY COMBINE LOW NOISE, EXCELLENT POSITIONING ACCURACY, WITH ZERO WEAR AND LUBRICATION REQUIREMENTS. THE PROPOSED PROGRAM WOULD DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING MAGNETIC BEARINGS FOR THE ROTATIONAL AND TRANSLATIONAL STAGE OF A HIGH PERFORMANCE OPTICAL DISK BUFFER. THIS FEASIBILITY WILLBE DEMONSTRATED BY DEVELOPING AND ANALYZING MAGNETIC ACTUATOR CONCEPTS FOR THIS APPLICATION. IT IS AN ANTICIPATED THAT A PROTOTYPE SYSTEM WILL BE CONSTRUCTED AND TESTED AS A PHASE II FOLLOW-ON EFFORT.