Hydrostatic air bearings for MEMS-based turbines with low L/D (bearing length/diameter) were designed and fabricated. The radial bearing is a 12-port inherent orifice air bearing, and the thrust bearing is a hydroinertia air bearing. The thrust bearing was tested, and stable levitation of the φ4mm rotor with 50μm gap was demonstrated at a bearing pressure of 0.2〜0.3 MPa. This result fairly agrees with the design calculation.
