ELECTRONIC SMOKING DEVICE

• US 20160213066A1
• Filed: 03/31/2016
• Published: 07/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fontem Ventures BV (Imperial Tobacco Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: Fontem Holdings 2 B.V.
• Inventors: Zitzke, Roland, Borkovec, Vaclav
• Granted Patent: US 10,064,434 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A24F 40/10 Devices using liquid inhalable precursors
• CPC Class Codes: A24F 40/50 Control or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 11/042 electrical
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 15/06 Inhaling appliances shaped like cigars, cigarettes or pipes
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3653 by Joule effect, i.e. electric resistance
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/8206 battery-operated
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 1/02 Automatic switching arrangements specially adapted to apparatus ; Control of heating devices thermally-actuated switches H01H37/00
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 1/0297 Heating of fluids for non specified applications

Abstract

An electronic smoking device comprises a housing accommodating a battery (10) as an electric power source powering an electrically heatable atomizer comprising an electric heater (22) and adapted to atomize a liquid supplied from a reservoir to provide an aerosol exiting from the atomizer. The heater (22) of the atomizer is controlled by means of control electronics (14). A puff detector (18) indicates an aerosol inhaling puff to the control electronics (14). The control electronics (14) operates, for a puff, the heater (22) of the atomizer with a pre-determined level of electric power. Preferably, the electronic smoking device comprises a voltage sensor (34) measuring the battery voltage, wherein the control electronics (14) distributes the pre-determined level of electric power, for a puff, by pulse width modulation, based on the battery voltage measured by the voltage sensor (34).

Claims

1. An electronic smoking device, comprising:

a housing (2) adapted to accommodate a battery (10) powering an electric heater (22) of an atomizer (20) adapted to atomize a liquid (28) supplied from a reservoir (6) to provide an aerosol exiting from the atomizer (20);

control electronics (14) adapted to control the heater (22) of the atomizer (20);

a puff detector (18) adapted to indicate an aerosol inhaling puff to the control electronics (14); and

the control electronics (14) is adapted to operate, for a puff, the heater (22) of the atomizer (20) with a pre-determined level of electric power.

2. The electronic smoking device of claim 1 further comprising a voltage sensor (34) adapted to measure battery voltage and connected to the control electronics (14), and the control electronics (14) is adapted to distribute the pre-determined level of electric power, for a puff, by pulse width modulation, based on a battery voltage measured by the voltage sensor (34).

3. The electronic smoking device of claim 2 with the control electronics (14) adapted to receive multiple measured values of the battery voltage during a puff and to derive a representative value of the battery voltage from the multiple measured values of the battery voltage.

4. The electronic smoking device of claim 3 with the control electronics (14) adapted to derive the representative value of the battery voltage as the smallest individually measured value of the battery voltage plus a constant.

5. The electronic smoking device of claim 3 with the control electronics (14) adapted to apply the representative value of the battery voltage derived during the puff as a constant value for the battery voltage when determining the pulse widths during a subsequent puff to observe the pre-determined level of electric power.

6. The electronic smoking device of claim 2 with the control electronics (14) adapted to receive multiple measured values of the battery voltage during a puff and to re-adjust the pulse widths during the puff to observe the pre-determined level of electric power.

7. The electronic smoking device of claim 2 wherein the control electronics (14) is adapted to determine a required pulse width modulation by using a pre-determined, constant value of the electrical resistance of the heater (22).

8. The electronic smoking device of claim 2 wherein the voltage sensor (34) is integrated in the control electronics (14).

9. The electronic smoking device of claim 1 wherein the control electronics (14) is adapted to operate, upon indication of a puff, the heater (22) of the atomizer (20) with the pre-determined level of electric power for a pre-determined period.

10. The electronic smoking device of claim 1 wherein the control electronics (14) is adapted to operate, upon indication of a puff, the heater (22) of the atomizer (20) with the pre-determined level of electric power as long as the puff is indicated.

11. The electronic smoking device of claim 1 wherein the control electronics (14) is adapted to operate the heater (22) of the atomizer (20) with a reduced level of electric power, when it is not operated with the pre-determined level of electric power.

12. The electronic smoking device of claim 1 wherein the puff detector comprises a manually actuatable switch.

13. The electronic smoking device of claim 1 wherein the puff detector (18) comprises an inhaling sensor.

14. The electronic smoking device of claim 1 wherein the atomizer (20) is a component of the electronic smoking device (1) and the heater (22) comprises a heating resistor, wherein the material of the heating resistor comprises at least one of the following materials:

a nickel-chromium alloy, a nickel-chromium alloy comprising 80% per weight nickel and 20% per weight chromium, a film polyim-ide, an iron-chromium-aluminum alloy.

15. The electronic smoking device of claim 1 wherein the battery (10) is a component of the electronic smoking device and the battery (10) is a re-chargeable lithium ion battery protected by safety circuitry.

16. The electronic smoking device of claim 4 wherein the constant is 200 mV.