This paper proposes a method to design sliding mode control (SMC) for the position tracking control of a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM). The controller is designed to achieve accurate performance in the presence of unknown disturbance and parameter uncertainties. The components of the control law, the equivalent component and the robust component, are designed such that the nominal system exhibits desirable dynamics and the reaching condition is guaranteed. Switching surface is designed based on pole placement and generalized matrix inverse. Simulation results show that the suggested procedure provides high performance dynamic characteristics and robust with regard to external disturbance and parameter variations.