This paper studies the output tracking control of a class of sandwich-like systems with state-dependent deadzone nonlinearity between two cascaded subsystems (e.g., the gear transmission systems). An exact differentiator-based backstepping control for such a sandwich-like nonlinear system is proposed. The proposed controller utilizes the high-order sliding mode robust exact differentiator to compensate the impact of non-strict feedback coupling term due to the sandwiched deadzone. The stability

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... of the closed-loop system is guaranteed to be uniform-ultimately bounded and the output tracking error converges to a residual set. Finally, two simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the tracking performance and effectiveness of the proposed controller.