Optical tape is a data storage medium. In certain examples, it can take the form of long narrow strips onto which patterns can be written and from which patterns can be read. Optical tape may facilitate higher data transfer rates, greater storage capacity, and reduced access times relative to magnetic tape. Moreover because optical tape is written and read using optical pick up units that do not touch the recording surface of the tape, it may be more durable than magnetic tape.
Power amplifiers have been for driving actuators of recording heads utilized in mass storage devices, such as magnetic disk and tape drives. The power amplifiers are part of servo subsystems to control the motion of the actuators that place the recording heads over the desired tracks on the recording media. Excessive power dissipation and large footprints (required area on circuit board) of these amplifier drivers however, make them quite unfeasible for newer generations of optical tape drive architecture. This is due to need for many optical pickup units, e.g., 24 and above, with multiple actuator. Thus the present inventor determined a need for a new pickup head structures and methods.