Patent ID: 7685887

Claim:
An air flow meter, the air flow meter comprising: a tube having an exterior surface and an interior surface, the interior surface defining an interior space; a first collector disposed within the interior space of the tube; a second collector disposed within the interior space of the tube; a plurality of transmission pins protruding from the interior surface of the tube between the first and second collectors, each of the plurality of transmission pins having a tip; and wherein the plurality of transmission pins are configured to create ions when a voltage from a high voltage power supply is applied to the plurality of transmission pins, wherein the first and second collectors are configured to collect the ions created by the plurality of transmission pins and output first and second collector signals; a first amplifier in communication with the first collector signal, wherein the first amplifier is configured to amplify the first collector signal to create an amplified first collector signal; an amplifier-inverter in communication with the second collector signal, wherein the amplifier-inverter is configured to amplify and invert the second collector signal to create an amplified-inverted second collector signal; and a comparator in communication with the first amplified collector signal and the amplified-inverted second collector signal, wherein the comparator outputs a first feedback signal wherein the air meter output signal reflects the imbalance in magnitude of the first amplified collector signal and the amplified-inverted second collector signal.