Patent Application
20240349793
This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202111048301.8, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on Sep. 8, 2021 and entitled “AEROSOL GENERATION DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
This application relates to the field of cigarette devices, and in particular, to an aerosol generation device and a control method therefor.
During use of smoking articles such as cigarettes or cigars, tobacco is burnt to produce smoke. An attempt has been made to provide substitutes for these tobacco-burning articles by producing products that release compounds without burning. An example of the products is a heat-not-burn product, which releases compounds by heating tobacco rather than burning the tobacco.
The patent document with the Publication No. CN111511233A discloses an aerosol generation device and an operation method therefor. An electromagnetic inductor is arranged in a cigarette, and a detector having a coil is arranged in the aerosol generation device. Electromagnetic induction may occur between the coil and the electromagnetic inductor, so that a characteristic change of a current generated by the electromagnetic induction and flowing through the coil may be detected, and an insertion state of the cigarette into the aerosol generation device may be determined.
This application is intended to provide an aerosol generation device and a control method therefor different from an existing cigarette insertion detection method.
An aspect of this application provides an aerosol generation device, including:
a chamber, configured to removably receive an aerosol generation article including a magnetic material;
a heater, configured to heat the aerosol generation article received in the chamber to generate an aerosol;
a detection circuit, including a capacitor connected in series with the heater; and
a controller, configured to control the detection circuit to have a direct current flowing therethrough, and determine, based on a duration for which a potential difference between two ends of the capacitor reaches a preset potential difference threshold, that the aerosol generation article is received in the chamber or the aerosol generation article is removed from the chamber. Another aspect of this application provides a control method for an aerosol generation device. The aerosol generation device includes a chamber, a heater, and a detection circuit. The detection circuit includes a capacitor connected in series with the heater. The method includes:
controlling the detection circuit to have a direct current flowing therethrough; and
determining, based on the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor reaches the preset potential difference threshold, that the aerosol generation article is received in the chamber or the aerosol generation article is removed from the chamber.
According to the aerosol generation device and the control method therefor provided in this application, it is determined, based on the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor reaches the preset potential difference threshold, whether a cigarette is inserted into the heating chamber, and then an action of the heater is controlled. The implementation mode is simple, and user experience is improved.
One or more embodiments are exemplarily described with reference to the corresponding figures in the accompanying drawings, and the descriptions are not to be construed as a limitation on the embodiments. Elements in the accompanying drawings that have same reference numerals are represented as similar elements, and unless otherwise particularly stated, the figures in the accompanying drawings are not drawn to scale.
For ease of understanding of this application, this application is described below in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific implementations. It should be noted that, when an element is expressed as “being fixed to” another element, the element may be directly on the another element, or one or more intermediate elements may exist between the element and the another element. When one element is expressed as “being connected to” another element, the element may be directly connected to the another element, or one or more intermediate elements may exist between the element and the another element. The terms “upper”, “lower”, “left”, “right”, “inner”, “outer”, and similar expressions used in this specification are merely used for an illustrative purpose.
Unless otherwise defined, meanings of all technical and scientific terms used in this specification are the same as that usually understood by a person skilled in the technical field to which this application belongs. The terms used in this specification of this application are merely intended to describe objectives of the specific implementations, and are not intended to limit this application. A term “and/or” used in this specification includes any or all combinations of one or more related listed items.
a heater 10, where when the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A, the heater 10 is inserted into the aerosol generation article 40 for heating to generate an aerosol;
a battery core 20, configured to supply power; and
a circuit board 30, arranged between the battery core 20 and the heater 10. Various circuits are integrated on the circuit board 30 to control the aerosol generation device. For example, the battery core 20 is controlled to supply power to the heater 10.
The aerosol generation article 40 is preferably made of a tobacco-containing material that releases a volatile compound from a substrate when being heated, or a non-tobacco material suitable for electric heating to smoke after being heated. The aerosol generation article 40 is preferably made of a solid substrate, which may include one or more of powder, particles, fragments, strips, or sheets of one or more of vanilla leaves, tobacco leaves, homogeneous tobacco, and expanded tobacco. Alternatively, the solid substrate may include additional tobacco or non-tobacco volatile aroma compounds to be released when the substrate is heated. In some examples, the aerosol generation article 40 includes a liquid substrate, or a carrier carrying the liquid substrate, or a container carrying the liquid substrate.
It should be noted that, heating methods of the heater 10 include, but are not limited to, resistive heating, electromagnetic heating, and infrared heating. In an exemplary embodiment, a shape of the heater 10 includes, but is not limited to, a needle, a pin, a tube, or a sheet.
It should be further noted that, unlike the example of
The aerosol generation article 40 includes a filter section 41 and an aerosol generation section 42 having an inhalable material. In a preferred implementation, the aerosol generation article 40 is provided with a magnetic material 43. The magnetic material 43 may be a ferromagnetic material, or another material having a magnetic permeability of approximately 100 H/m or more. The magnetic material 43 may be a coating formed on an outer surface of the aerosol generation article 40, for example, arranged close to a lower end of the aerosol generation section 202, or may be a component arranged on the outer surface of the aerosol generation article 40. Alternatively, the magnetic material 43 is located in the aerosol generation article 40 and mixed with the inhalable material.
In this example, a controller 31, a detection circuit 32, and a switch transistor circuit 33 are integrated on a circuit board 30. Certainly, it is also feasible that the controller, the detection circuit, and the switch transistor circuit are integrated on another circuit board. The controller 31 adopts a micro controller unit (MCU). It may be understood that, in another example, the controller 31 may adopt an application-specific integrated chip, or another chip having a processor function.
In this example, the controller 31 has a TEST_VCC port, a TEST_AIN port, a PWM_OUT_P port, and a PWM_OUT_N port.
The detection circuit 32 includes a resistor R2, an electric heater C2, a resistor R2, a capacitor C2, and a heater 10 connected in series. Specifically, one end of the resistor R2 is electrically connected to the TEST_VCC port of the controller 31, and an other end of the resistor R2 is electrically connected to one end (indicated by WH+ in the figure) of the heater 10. An other end (indicated by WH− in the figure) of the heater 10 is electrically connected to one end of the capacitor C2 and the TEST_AIN port of the controller 31, and an other end of the capacitor C2 is connected to the ground.
The switch transistor circuit 33 includes a switch transistor Q3, a switch transistor Q5, and a switch transistor Q7. In this example, the switch transistor Q3 and the switch transistor Q7 are NMOS transistors, and the switch transistor Q5 is a PMOS transistor. The PWM_OUT_P port of the controller 31 is electrically connected to a gate of the switch transistor Q3, a drain of the switch transistor Q3 is electrically connected to a gate of the switch transistor Q5, and a source of the switch transistor Q3 is grounded. A source of the switch transistor Q5 is electrically connected to the battery core 20 (indicated by VBAT in the figure), and a drain of the switch transistor Q5 is electrically connected to one end (indicated by WH+ in the figure) of the heater 10. The PWM_OUT_N port is electrically connected to a gate of the switch transistor Q7, a drain of the switch transistor Q7 is electrically connected to an other end (indicated by WH− in the figure) of the heater 10, and a source of the switch transistor Q7 is grounded. For other components and the electrical connection thereof, reference may be made to
In this example, the controller 31 is configured to: output a control signal to control the switch transistor circuit 33 to be open; control the detection circuit 32 to have the direct current flowing therethrough in a case that the switch transistor circuit 33 is open and after a countdown time of a timer is reached; and determine, based on the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A or the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A, and then control an action of the heater 10.
Specifically, the controller 31 may control the PWM_OUT_P port to output a low level, so that the switch transistor Q3 is turned off, and the switch transistor Q5 is turned off. In addition, the PWM_OUT_N port is controlled to output the low level, so that the switch transistor Q7 is turned off. In this way, an electrical connection between the heater 10 and the battery core 20 is cut off.
The controller 31 is integrated with a countdown timer (not shown in the figure), whereby a function to determine whether the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A is enabled by using a timed wake-up function, to control the action of the heater 10. To be specific, the heater 10 is controlled to start or stop heating.
The controller 31 may control the TEST_VCC port to output a high level, so that the detection circuit 32 has the direct current flowing therethrough.
As shown in
A line impedance of the detection circuit 32 may be represented by using the following formula:
|Z|√{square root over (R2+(XL−Xc2)2)} where |Z| is a line impedance, XL is an inductive reactance of the inductor L, and Xc2 is a capacitive reactance of the capacitor C2.
A change in the inductance of the inductor L may affect a magnitude of the line impedance |Z|, and then change a charging time of the capacitor C2. Specifically, when the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A, the aerosol generation article 40 having the magnetic material may increase the inductance of the inductor L, thereby increasing the line impedance |Z|.
Therefore, after the controller 31 controls the TEST_VCC port to output the high level, a charging time of the capacitor C2 before the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A is different from that after the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A. The charging time of the capacitor C2 after the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A is greater than the charging time of the capacitor C2 before the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A.
Based on the foregoing principle, it may be determined, based on the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A or the acrosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A, and then the action of the heater 10 is controlled.
In this example, the TEST_AIN port of controller 31 is an interrupt port, and a countup timer (not shown in the figure) is integrated in the controller 31.
The controller 31 is configured to: control the countup timer to start countup when controlling the TEST_VCC port to output the high level; generate an interrupt when the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold, to obtain a countup time of the countup timer; and determine, based on the countup time of the countup timer, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A or the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A, and then control the action of the heater 10.
In this example, the preset potential difference threshold is of a high level, may be a potential difference between the two ends when the capacitor C2 is full, or may be less than the potential difference between the two ends when the capacitor C2 is full.
In an alternative implementation, the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold may be compared with a preset time threshold.
If the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold is greater than the preset time threshold, it may be determined that the acrosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A. In this case, the control signal (such as a square wave signal) is outputted to control the operation of the switch transistor circuit 33, and then the heater 10 is started for heating.
If the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold is not greater than the preset time threshold, it may be determined that the aerosol generation article 40 is not received in the chamber A. In this case, the switch transistor circuit 33 is controlled to remain open. To be specific, the heater 10 is in an unheated state.
The preset time threshold may be set to the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold when the aerosol generation article 40 is not received in the chamber A.
Based on the foregoing determination, when the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A, the heater 10 may be automatically controlled to start heating without a key operation, which improves user experience. On the other hand, when the aerosol generation article 40 without the magnetic material is inserted into the chamber A, the change of the line impedance |Z| is very small. Therefore, the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold is almost unchanged. In this case, the heater 10 is not automatically controlled to start heating, which may play an anti-counterfeiting role.
In another alternative implementation, a difference between the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold and the preset time threshold may be determined. If the difference is not greater than the preset difference threshold and is greater than zero, the control signal (such as the square wave signal) is outputted to control the switch transistor circuit 33 to operate, and then the heater 10 is started for heating. If the difference is greater than the preset difference threshold or the difference is less than or equal to zero, the switch transistor circuit 33 is controlled to remain open.
In the implementation, in a case that the aerosol generation article 40 has a magnetic material, a consistency of the magnetic material may provide fixed time intervals after the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A and before the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A. Therefore, it may be determined, by determining that the difference between the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold and the preset time threshold is within a preset range, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A. The heater 10 is automatically controlled to start heating without a key operation, which improves user experience. Otherwise, if the difference between the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold and the preset time threshold is greater than the preset difference threshold, it may be determined that the aerosol generation article 40 is a counterfeit product. In this case, the heater 10 is not controlled to start heating. Further, if the difference between the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold and the preset time threshold is less than or equal to zero, it may be determined that the aerosol generation article 40 is not inserted into the chamber A. In this case, the heater 10 is not controlled to start heating.
In the foregoing two implementations, if the heater 10 has been controlled to start heating, the determination of whether the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A may be performed again in a case that the heater 10 is in a heating gap. If the aerosol generation article 40 is inserted into the chamber A, the heating is continued. If the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A, the heating is stopped. For the determination process, reference may be made to the foregoing implementations.
It should be noted that, in this example, the heating gap refers to a time period between two adjacent high levels (or low levels) in the square wave signal.
It should be further noted that, unlike the foregoing example, in another example, it is feasible that the controller 31 does not adopt the interrupt. To be specific, the TEST_AIN port is a general port. In this case, when the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold, the controller 31 obtains the countup time of the countup timer. The subsequent process is similar to the foregoing process, and details are not described herein.
The method includes the following steps:
Step S11: Control a detection circuit 32 to have a direct current flowing therethrough.
Step S12: Determine, based on a duration for which a potential difference between two ends of a capacitor C2 reaches a preset potential difference threshold, that an aerosol generation article 40 is received in a chamber A or the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A.
In an example, the method includes:
controlling a countup timer to start countup when controlling the detection circuit 32 to have the direct current flowing therethrough;
obtaining a countup time of the countup timer when the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold; and
determining, based on the countup time of the countup timer, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A or the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A.
In an example, the method includes:
outputting a first control signal to control the switch transistor circuit 33 to be open;
controlling the detection circuit 32 to have the direct current flowing therethrough in a case that the switch transistor circuit 33 is open; and
determining, based on the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A or the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A.
In an example, the determining, based on the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A or the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A includes:
comparing the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold with a preset time threshold;
outputting a second control signal to control the switch transistor circuit 33 to operate, and then starting the heater 10 for heating if the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold is greater than the preset time threshold; and
controlling the switch transistor circuit 33 to remain open if the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold is not greater than the preset time threshold.
In an example, the determining, based on the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A or the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A includes:
determining a difference between the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold and the preset time threshold;
outputting a third control signal to control the switch transistor circuit 33 to operate, and then starting the heater 10 for heating if the difference is not greater than the preset difference threshold and is greater than zero; and
controlling the switch transistor circuit to remain open if the difference is greater than the preset difference threshold.
In an example, the method includes:
controlling the detection circuit 32 to have the direct current flowing therethrough after a countdown time of a countdown timer is reached; and
determining, based on the duration for which the potential difference between the two ends of the capacitor C2 reaches the preset potential difference threshold, that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A or the aerosol generation article 40 is removed from the chamber A.
Specifically, the control process includes the following steps:
Step S21: A switch transistor circuit 33 is open.
A controller 31 controls a PWM_OUT_P port to output a low level, so that a switch transistor Q3 is turned off, and a switch transistor Q5 is turned off. In addition, a PWM_OUT_N port is controlled to output the low level, so that a switch transistor Q7 is turned off. In this way, an electrical connection between a heater 10 and a battery core 20 is cut off.
Step S22: Determine whether a countdown time of a countdown timer is reached.
A function to determine whether the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A is enabled by using a timed wake-up function to control the action of the heater 10. If the countdown time of the countdown timer is not reached, the switch transistor circuit 33 is remains open.
Step S23: Control a countup timer to start countup when a TEST_VCC port is controlled to output a high level.
Step S24: Whether a TEST_AIN port receives an interrupt signal.
Step S25: Obtain a countup time of the countup timer.
For example, an interrupt for a high-level signal is generated, and the countup time of the countup timer is read through an interrupt program.
Step S26: Determine whether the countup time of the countup timer is greater than a preset time threshold.
If the countup time is greater than the preset time threshold, step S27 is performed. Otherwise, it may be determined that the aerosol generation article 40 is not received in the chamber A, and the switch transistor circuit 33 remains open, waiting for timed wake-up.
Step S27 and Step S28: Determine that the aerosol generation article 40 is received in the chamber A. In this case, a square wave signal is outputted to control the switch transistor circuit 33, and then the heater 10 is started for heating.
It should be noted that, the specification of this application and the accompanying drawings thereof illustrate preferred embodiments of this application. However, this application may be implemented in various different forms, and is not limited to the embodiments described in this specification. These embodiments are not intended to be an additional limitation on the content of this application, and are described for the purpose of providing a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of the content disclosed in this application. Moreover, the foregoing technical features are further combined to form various embodiments not listed above, and all such embodiments shall be construed as falling within the scope of this application. Further, a person of ordinary skill in the art may make improvements or modifications according to the foregoing descriptions, and all the improvements and modifications shall fall within the protection scope of the appended claims of this application.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202111048301.8 | Sep 2021 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2022/117905 | 9/8/2022 | WO |
