[ Technical Field]

The present invention relates to an aerosol generating device , and more particularly to an aerosol generating device for heating an aerosol generating substrate to generate an aerosol for inhalation by a user .

[Background]

Commonly available aerosol generating devices generate an aerosol or vapor by heating an aerosol generating substrate , comprised in an aerosol generating article such as a tobacco stick, to a temperature typically in the range 150 ° C to 300 ° C, in a heating compartment of a heating assembly . Heating the aerosol generating substrate to a temperature within this range , without burning or combusting the aerosol generating substrate , generates a vapor which typically cools and condenses to form an aerosol for inhalation by a user of the aerosol generating device .

Typically, an aerosol generating device includes a user interface by which the user inputs commands for controlling the aerosol generating device . Using the user interface , the user may input commands such as switching the aerosol generating device on or of f , increasing or decreasing the amount of power provided to the heating assembly and the like .

There are various di f ferent compositions available for aerosol generating articles . Depending on the composition the flavor of the aerosol generated from heating the aerosol generating article may vary . Di f ferent compositions may release an aerosol with optimal flavor at di f ferent temperatures . In order for a user to have an optimal experience of inhaling the aerosol , the user typically has to make sure that the aerosol generating article is correctly inserted into the heating compartment and that an optimal amount of power is provided to the heating assembly .

There is , therefore , a need to provide an aerosol generating device capable of automatically detecting an insertion of an aerosol generating article .

[ Summary]

The novel aerosol generating device is arranged such that an insertion of the aerosol generating article thereinto can be detected . The aerosol generating device is further arranged to control an operation of the aerosol generating device in accordance with the detection .

One embodiment relates to an aerosol generating device comprising : a heating assembly comprising a heating compartment arranged to receive an aerosol generating article , the aerosol generating article having a pattern provided on a surface thereof ; a sensor arranged to detect a vibration pattern generated by the pattern when inserting the aerosol generating article into the heating compartment ; and a controller arranged to control at least one operation of the aerosol generating device based on the vibration pattern .

Further preferred embodiments are described in the dependent claims .

[Brief description of the drawings ]

Embodiments of the present invention, which are presented for better understanding the inventive concepts , but which are not to be seen as limiting the invention, will now be described with reference to the figures in which :

Fig . 1 shows a cross-sectional view of an aerosol generating device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig . 2 shows a perspective view of an aerosol generating device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig . 3A shows a perspective view of an aerosol generating article being inserted into a heating compartment comprising a protrusion according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig . 3B shows a perspective view of an aerosol generating article being inserted into a heating compartment comprising a protrusion according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig . 3C shows a perspective view of an aerosol generating article being inserted into a heating compartment comprising a protrusion according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig . 4A shows a perspective view of an aerosol generating article being inserted into a heating compartment comprising a spring- loaded ball pin according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig . 4B shows a perspective view of an aerosol generating article being inserted into a heating compartment comprising a spring- loaded ball pin according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig . 5A shows examples for regular patterns according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig 5B shows examples for irregular patterns according to an embodiment of the present invention .

[ Detailed description]

The present invention shall now be described in conj unction with speci fic embodiments . The speci fic embodiments serve to provide the skilled person with a better understanding but are not intended to in any way restrict the scope of the invention, which is defined by the appended claims . In particular, the embodiments described independently throughout the description can be combined to form further embodiments to the extent that they are not mutually exclusive .

Fig . 1 shows an aerosol generating device 1 and an aerosol generating article 4 . The aerosol generating device 1 comprises a heating assembly 2 comprising a heating compartment 3 arranged to receive the aerosol generating article 4 . The aerosol generating article 4 has a pattern 5 provided on a surface thereof . The aerosol generating device 1 further comprises a sensor 6 arranged to detect a vibration pattern generated by the pattern 5 when inserting the aerosol generating article 4 into the heating compartment 3 . The aerosol generating device 1 further comprises a controller 7 arranged to control at least one operation of the aerosol generating device 1 based on the vibration pattern . The controller 7 may include a microcontroller unit (MCU) and/or micro processing unit (MPU) . The controller may be configured to receive an output signal of the sensor 6 and execute stored program based on the received signal .

The aerosol generating device 1 may be an electronic cigarette using the aerosol generating article 4 as a consumable . The aerosol generating article 4 may comprise an aerosol generating substrate such as tobacco . Such an aerosol generating article 4 is typically referred to as a tobacco stick . The aerosol generating article 4 may further comprise an enclosure for storing the aerosol generating substrate therein and the outer surface of the enclosure may be the surface on which the pattern 5 is provided .

The aerosol generating article 4 has a pattern 5 provided on a surface thereof , wherein the pattern 5 is a corrugated pattern . In general , the corrugated pattern refers to a surface structure comprising a portion of the surface provided with structural features either protruding from or receding into a predominantly flat remaining portion of the surface . For example , protruding features may be provided as ridges or domes on the surface . For example , receding features may be provided as grooves or dents in the surface . The structural features may be generated by creasing the surface to produce permanent wrinkles in the surface . The structural features may be generated by stamping the surface to produce an embossment of the surface . The structural features may be generated by printing or gluing material onto the surface to produce an elevated layer on the surface .

The structural features are arranged to form the corrugated pattern . For example , the corrugated pattern may have a wavey shape , wherein protruding and/or receding features are arranged in alternating order . Braille text embossed on a paper is an example for a corrugated pattern provided as domes protruding from the flat surface of the paper . In this example , the corrugated pattern encodes letters which can be read by blind people through tactile perception .

The aerosol generating device 1 may comprise a power source . The power source may provide power to the heating assembly 2 , the sensor 6 and the controller 7 . The power source may be a DC power source such as a battery and/or a capacitor . Alternatively, the power source may be an AC power source .

The heating assembly 2 may comprise a heater arranged to heat the aerosol generating substrate comprised within the aerosol generating article 4 received in the heating compartment 3 . The generated aerosol may then be discharged from the aerosol generating article 4 and may be inhaled by a user . The heater may be an induction heater such as an induction coil . Alternatively, the heater may be a resistive heater such as a heating pin insertable into the aerosol generating article 4 and/or a heating chamber formed on an inner wall of the heating compartment . The heating assembly 2 may heat the aerosol generating substrate to a temperature , for example , in the range 150 ° C to 300 ° C .

Fig . 2 shows a perspective view of the aerosol generating device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein an aerosol generating article 4 is fully inserted into the heating compartment 3 . The aerosol generating device 1 may further comprise one or more status LEDs 9 indicating the operation of the aerosol generating device 1 . As shown in Fig . 2 , the one or more status LEDs 9 may be arranged on the housing of aerosol generating device 1 such that a user may easily read of f a current status . The current status may for example indicate whether or not the aerosol generating article 4 has been correctly inserted or not .

During insertion of the aerosol generating article 4 into the heating compartment 3 , the pattern 5 on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 may come into contact with an inner wall of the heating compartment 3 , thereby causing friction . The friction may result in compressions and decompressions of the material at the contacting surface , thereby generating a vibration pattern . The vibration pattern may be an audible sound signal .

The controller 7 may be arranged to detect an insertion of an aerosol generating article 4 into the heating compartment 3 . For example , the controller 7 may analyze the vibration pattern detected by the sensor 6 to determine whether an aerosol generating article 4 is being inserted . Similarly, a vibration pattern may be generated when the aerosol generating article 4 is extracted from the heating compartment 3 . The sensor 6 may be arranged to detect a vibration pattern generated by the pattern 5 when extracting the aerosol generating article 4 from the heating compartment 3 . The controller 7 may be arranged to detect an extraction of an aerosol generating article 4 from the heating compartment 3 .

The heating compartment 3 may further comprise a protrusion 8 arranged to contact the pattern 5 when inserting the aerosol generating article 4 into the heating compartment 3 . The protrusion 8 may be provided on an inner wall of the heating compartment 3 . When the aerosol generating article 4 is inserted into the heating compartment 3 , the pattern 5 on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 may come into contact with the protrusion 8 , thereby generating the vibration pattern .

Preferably, at least one of the patterns 5 and the protrusion 8 may be asymmetry along with insertion/extraction direction so that the controller 7 easily and precisely distinguish between the insertion and extraction of the aerosol generating article 4 .

Both aerosol generating article 4 and the heating compartment 3 may each have a cylindrical form . The surface of an aerosol generating article 4 having a cylindrical form comprises a cylindrical portion . Likewise , an inner wall of a heating compartment 3 having a cylindrical form comprises a cylindrical portion .

The protrusion 8 may be arranged only on a part of circumferential direction of the heating compartment 3 . In other words , the protrusion 8 may be provided only on a part of circumferential direction of the cylindrical portion of the inner wall of the heating compartment 3 . Furthermore , the pattern 5 may be provided on al l parts of circumferential direction of the cylindrical portion of the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 . Such a configuration is shown in Fig . 3A, wherein a front segment of the heating compartment 3 is removed for better visibility . This embodiment may lead to reduce risk which the vibration pattern is not properly generated when a part of the pattern 5 is crushed . Because the pattern 5 is provided on all parts of circumferential direction of the cylindrical portion of the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 .

Alternatively, the protrusion 8 may be arranged on all parts of circumferential direction of the heating compartment 3 . In other words , the protrusion 8 may be provided on all parts of circumferential direction of the cylindrical portion of the inner wall of the heating compartment 3 . Furthermore , the pattern 5 may be provided only on a part of circumferential direction of the cylindrical portion of the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 . Such a configuration is shown in Fig . 3B, wherein a front segment of the heating compartment 3 is removed for better visibility . This embodiment may lead to reduce cost of the aerosol generating article 4 . Because production process of the aerosol generating article 4 is simpli fied .

For either of the aforementioned configurations , the pattern 5 on the surface of the aerosol generating device 4 may come into contact with the protrusion 8 which is provided only on a part of circumferential direction of the cylindrical portion of the inner wall of the heating compartment 3 , irrespective of a rotation of the aerosol generating article 4 during insertion .

The protrusion 8 may be arranged as a single protruding part on an inner wall of the heating compartment 3 or as multiple protruding parts on the inner wall of the heating compartment 3 . The multiple protruding parts may be formed as a regular internal structure on the inner wall of the heating compartment 3 and may be obtained through a manufacturing process based on sintering milli- or micro-spheres onto the inner wall .

Similarly, the single or multiple protruding parts may be provided, for example , as a single or multiple ribs , respectively, on the inner wall in circumferential direction of the heating compartment 3 . Fig . 3C shows a heating compartment 3 ( front segment removed for better visibility) with a protrusion 8 comprising multiple protruding parts provided as ribs on the inner wall in circumferential direction . The protrusion 8 of the heating compartment 3 may be arranged in accordance with the pattern 3 on the fully inserted aerosol generating article 4 . This way, the contact surface between the inner walls o f the heating compartment 3 and the aerosol generating article 4 may be maximi zed and heating ef ficiency may be improved .

The protrusion 8 may comprise a spring-loaded ball pin . Fig . 4A shows a cross-sectional view of a heating compartment 3 comprising a protrusion 8 with a spring-load ball pin . When the spring-load ball pin is not in contact with the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 , the spring of the spring-loaded ball pin is a decompressed state . Fig . 4B shows the same configuration, wherein the aerosol generating article 4 has been partially inserted into the heating compartment 3 . When the spring-load ball pin comes into contact with a protruding portion feature of pattern 5 provided on with the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 , the spring of the spring-loaded ball pin is a compressed state , and the spring-loaded ball pin is inserted deeper into a guide channel . This way . the spring-loaded ball pin may serve as an actuator . Likewise , the compression and decompression of the spring-loaded ball may be used to facilitate the generation of an audible sound signal as the vibration pattern .

When the aerosol generating article 4 is inserted further into the heating compartment 3 , the spring-loaded ball pin may be pushed back and forth in accordance with the pattern 5 on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 . This , way the movement of spring-loaded ball pin generates the vibration pattern as i f follows the pattern 5 during insertion of the aerosol generating article 4 .

The sensor 6 may comprise a current sensor arranged to detect a current flowing in an electric circuit , and the spring- loaded ball pin may be arranged to open and close the electric circuit in accordance with the vibration pattern . Through the opening and closing of the electric circuit the sensor 6 may generate an electric signal according to the vibration pattern . The electric signal may be a binary signal .

The sensor 6 may comprise a microphone arranged to collect a sound signature associated with the vibration pattern . The vibration pattern generated during insertion of the aerosol generating article 4 may be an audible sound signal and the audible sound signal may be collected by the microphone . The audible sound signal may depend on the pattern 5 on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 . The controller 7 may be arranged to detect a user inhalation based on an output signal of the microphone . The output signal may be a characteristic signature of air flow generated by a user "puf fing" on the aerosol generating article 4 inserted into the heating compartment 3 .

The sensor 6 may comprise an accelerometer . The accelerometer may be arranged to detect the vibration pattern causing in the heating compartment 3 during insertion of the aerosol generating article 4 . For example, the accelerometer may be provided close to a protrusion 8 of the heating compartment 3 . This way, the friction of the protrusion 8 with the pattern 5 on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 may induce vibrations of the protrusion 8 and the accelerometer may detect the vibration pattern . The controller 7 may be arranged to detect a tilting and/or shaking of the aerosol generating device based on an output signal of the sensor . The tilting and/or shaking of the aerosol generating device 1 may be detected based on a measurement by the accelerometer .

The pattern 5 may comprise a plurality of concavities and convexities . For example , the pattern 5 may comprise a set of grooves . For another example , the pattern 5 may comprise a set of ridges . For yet another example , the pattern 5 may comprise both a set of grooves and a set of ridges . The plurality of concavities and convexities may be arranged with a constant pitch from one another, thereby generating a pattern 5 that is regular . Varying the pitch of the plurality of concavities and convexities may impact the vibration pattern generated when the pattern 5 on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 is inserted into the heating compartment 3 . For a regular pattern, the resulting vibration pattern may also be regular . In other words , a regular pattern may generate a periodic vibration pattern . Fig . 5A shows examples for regular patterns . For example , the pattern 5 may be provided as a set of 90 ° , 60 ° , 45 ° or 30 ° inclined ribs ( dark lines ) with a regular pitch . For another example , the pattern 5 may be provided as a set of 60 ° or 45 ° V-shapes or inverted V-shaped ribs ( dark lines ) with a regular pitch .

Furthermore , the controller 7 may be arranged to count the number of concavities and convexities based on the vibration pattern . The aerosol generating article 4 may be provided with a pattern 5 having a predetermined number of concavities and convexities . The controller 7 may further be arranged to determine that the aerosol generating article 4 has been fully inserted into the heating compartment 3 by comparing the counted number of concavities and convexities with a threshold based on the predetermined number of concavities and convexities . The number of concavities and convexities may be used to encode information on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 .

The pattern 5 may be irregular . For example , the pattern 5 may comprise a plurality of concavities and convexities , wherein the plurality of concavities and convexities are arranged with a non-constant pitch from one another . In other words , the concavities and convexities may have varying widths and may be arranged with a varying pitch . The irregular pattern may be used to encode information on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 . This way, the irregular pattern may serve as 3-dimensional barcode . The resulting vibration pattern may be irregular as well . In other words , a regular pattern may generate a non-periodic vibration pattern which may be indicative of the information encoded by the pattern 5 . Fig . 5B shows examples for irregular patterns . For example , the pattern 5 may be provided as a set of 90 ° or 45 ° inclined or 60 ° V-shaped ribs ( dark lines ) with an irregular pitch and width .

The controller 7 is arranged to control at least one operation of the aerosol generating device 1 based on the vibration pattern . The at least one operation of the aerosol generating device 1 may comprise detecting whether or not the aerosol generating article 4 is correctly inserted into the heating compartment 3 . For example , a correct insertion may be determined by counting the number of concavities and convexities and comparing it with a threshold .

The at least one operation of the aerosol generating device 1 further may further comprise allowing power to be provided to the heating assembly 2 when it is detected that the aerosol generating article 4 is correctly inserted into the heating compartment 3 . This way, it may be ensured that the aerosol generating article 4 is properly heated when the heating is activated .

Alternatively, the at least one operation of the aerosol generating device 1 may further comprise providing power to the heating assembly 2 when it is detected that the aerosol generating article 4 is correctly inserted into the heating compartment 3 . This way, heating may automatically be activated, and it may be ensured that the aerosol generating article 4 is properly heated .

The at least one operation of the aerosol generating device 1 may comprise identi fying a type of the aerosol generating article 4 based on the vibration pattern . For example , the information encoded by the number of concavities and convexities or by an irregular pattern provided on the surface of the aerosol generating article 4 may be indicative of the type of the aerosol generating article 4 . The type may be indicative of a composition of the aerosol generating article 4 .

The at least one operation of the aerosol generating device 1 may further comprise selecting a power profile for the heating assembly 2 the based on the type of the aerosol generating article . This way, an optimal amount of power provided to the heating assembly 2 may be set .

[Reference Signs ]

1 aerosol generating device

2 heating assembly

3 heating compartment

4 aerosol generating article

5 pattern

6 sensor

7 controller

8 protrusion

9 status LED ( s )