Patent ID: 8662754

Claim:
A damped air bearing for supporting a body in linear and rotating applications, comprising: a) a beam deflection proportional fluidic amplifier with a supply port pressurized from an external air pressure source and providing an amplifier supply jet, an output port supplying an amplifier output pressure, and a pair of input control ports; b) a bearing pad connected to the amplifier output port and pressurized by the amplifier output pressure to support said body on a film or layer of pressurized gas; c) a passive fluidic compensation circuit connected to sense the pressure in said bearing pad; and d) a pneumatic compensation circuit operative to generate a differential pressure which varies with the rate of change of the sensed bearing pad pressure; e) said compensation circuit being connected across the input control ports to cause a deflection of the amplifier supply jet and a change in amplifier output pressure as the sensed bearing pad pressure changes.