This paper presents two new concepts for assisting control engineers with t
he design of high performance servo systems with applications to disk drive
s. Classical loop shaping concepts are the basis for the two methods. The f
irst idea is a modification of the traditional Bode plots to provide closed
-loop frequency response information as graphed as contours along with the
usual open-loop magnitude and phase response graphs. The concept can reduce
the trial and error needed to obtain a good design by more clearly showing
the relationship between the open-loop and closed-loop frequency responses
, The second idea is to use complex conjugate poles and zeros as a modifica
tion to the classical double lead compensator. The damping ratio of the com
plex poles and zeros provides the flexibility to reduce the ratio of the hi
gh frequency gain to low frequency gain and to sharpen the phase peak witho
ut changing the magnitude of the peak. The paper shows a design example emp
loying both methods.