Patent Application
20150173419
The exemplary embodiment of the present invention relates to electronic cigarettes. More specifically, the exemplary embodiment(s) of the present invention relates to an electronic cigarette with a thermal flow sensor based controller.
Electronic cigarette emits doses of vaporized nicotine that are inhaled. It has been said to be an alternative for tobacco smokers who want to avoid inhaling smoke.
Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 different chemicals, many of which are hazardous for human health. Death directly related to the use of tobacco is estimated to be at least 5 million people annually. If every tobacco user smoked one pack a day, there would be a total of 1.3 billion packs of cigarettes smoked each day, emitting a large amount of harmful tar, CO and other more than 400gas contents to homes and offices, causing significant second-hand smoking damages to human health.
In order to overcome these problems, people have invented many new technologies and products, such as nicotine patches, nicotine gum, etc. Recently, several new inventions have been made, including the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,060,671; 5,591,368; 5,750,964; 5,988,176; 6,026,820 and 6,040,560 disclose electrical electronic cigarettes and methods for manufacturing an electronic cigarette, which patents are incorporated here by reference.
The electronic cigarettes currently are available on the market. Most electronic cigarettes take an overall cylindrical shape although a wide array of shapes can be found; box, pipe styles etc. Most are made to look like the common tobacco cigarette. Common components include a liquid delivery and container system, an atomizer, and a power source. Many electronic cigarettes are composed of streamlined replaceable parts, while disposable devices combine all components into a single part that is discarded when its liquid is depleted.
These cigarette substitutes cannot satisfy habitual smoking actions of a smoker, such as an immediacy response, a desired level of delivery, together with a desired resistance to draw and consistency from puff to puff and from cigarette to cigarette. It is desirable for an electronic cigarette to deliver smoke in a manner that meets the smoker experiences with more traditional cigarettes so that it can be widely accepted as effective substitutes for quitting smoking.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a thermal flow sensor based electronic cigarette that overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages and provides a cigarette that looks like a normal cigarette and smokes like a normal cigarette. The thermal flow sensor based controller comprises a housing; a battery, a controller assembly consisting of a thermal flow sensor and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which is disposed in the housing and connected with the battery and the thermal flow sensor electrically; an air inlet for allowing air to enter into the housing, a mouthpiece for allowing user to suck on the housing; a fluid reservoir; an atomizer consisting of a coil heater, wherein the coil heater is arranged on the outside of an atomizer; at least a light emitting diode; and a display.
The thermal flow sensor is fabricated using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technologies.
In a first embodiment the thermal flow sensor composes of a resistive heater and a thermopile, wherein the thermocouples of the thermopile are perpendicular to the resistive heater and the hot contacts of the thermopile and the resistive heater lie on a stack layer consisting of a porous silicon layer and an empty gap, which recessed in a silicon substrate and provides local thermal isolation from the silicon substrate and the cold contacts of the thermopile lie on the bulk portion of the silicon substrate.
In a second embodiment the thermal flow sensor composes of two parallel resistive heaters and two thermopile, wherein the thermopiles dispose on two opposite sides of the resistive heaters respectively and the thermocouples of the two thermopiles are perpendicular to the resistive heaters and the hot contacts of the thermopiles and the resistive heaters lie on a stack layer consisting of a porous silicon layer and an empty gap, which are recessed in a silicon substrate and provides local thermal isolation from the silicon substrate and the cold contacts of the thermopiles lie on the bulk portion of the silicon substrate.
The thermal flow sensor is installed in the housing with its longitudinal direction perpendicular to the resistive heater(s) so that when there is no air flow through the housing, the temperature profile around the resistive heater(s) is symmetric and when an air flow is produced by a smoker inhalation, the temperature profile will shift from the up flow direction to the down flow direction, which represents the temperature change coursed by the air flow and can be detected by the thermopile(s) of the sensor so that an electrical signal is generated which represents the rate of the air flow.
An advantage of the present invention is that the thermal flow sensor based controller is able immediately to response to the air flow caused by a smoker inhalation or is able to response in about 5 ms to the air flow caused by a smoker inhalation.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the thermal flow sensor based controller can be operated in pulse heating mode in which the power consumption can be as low as in the range of 0.01 to 10 mw in which the low power consumption can be used in sleep mode and the high power consumption can be used in normal working mode.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the thermal flow sensor based controller has high dynamic range and can measure air volume flow rate from 0.01 to 100 liter/min so that the airway for air flow caused by a smoker inhalation can be configured without any constriction to provide a flow resistance which makes the smoker feel like to smoke a real tobacco cigarette.
Still another advantage of the present invention is that the thermal flow sensor based controller can be configured to: receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate from the amplifier which is produced by a smoker inhalation, determine a heating current that is used to heat the coil heater of the atomizer, and deliver an amount of the fluid vapor generated by the heating the coil heater of the atomizer which is wanted by the smoker regardless of a hard inhalation or a weak inhalation and a longer inhalation or a short inhalation.
Still another advantage of the present invention is that the thermal flow sensor based controller can be configured to: receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate from the amplifier which is produced by a smoker inhalation, determine a drive current that is used to drive the light emitting diodes, and deliver the drive current to the light emitting diodes so that the light emitted by the light emitting diodes can be gradually bright or gradually faded or flashing or intermittent.
Still another advantage of the present invention is that the thermal flow sensor based controller can be configured to: receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate from the amplifier which is produced by a smoker inhalation, calculates the amount of nicotine evaporated in each inhalation and over period time, and displays the total amount of nicotine in a over period time which is inhaled by the smoker.
Still another advantage of the present invention is that the thermal flow sensor based controller can be configured to receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate from the amplifier which is produced by an accident event such as mechanical vibration or temperature changes, and determine no heating current to heat the coil heater of the atomizer since there is no real smoker inhalation to take place.
Various features of the present invention are shown in the drawings in which like numerals indicate similar elements.
The following detailed description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the invention or the application and uses of the invention. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any theory presented in the preceding background of the invention or the following detailed description of the invention.
Referring to
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The thermal flow sensor 102 is fabricated using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technologies. MEMS technologies are derived from semiconductor IC processing such as plasma etch, thin film deposition and photolithography. MEMS devices are all around us today—from accelerometers and gyroscopes that enable today's sophisticated mobile interfaces to automobile navigation and airbag sensors, and medical and communications devices.
As well known, porous silicon layer 207 and 305 can be formed by anodization of a silicon substrate in a concentrated HF solution filed in a cell. The anodization cell usually employs platinum cathode and silicon substrate anode immersed in HF solution.
It is also well known that when the anodic current density running through the cell is very high the silicon substrate can be polished so that an empty gas such as empty gaps 208 and 306 can be formed.
It is still also well known that porous silicon presents a thermal conductivity near to thermal conductivity of silicon dioxide. This material is an excellent candidate to ensure the thermal insulation for the micro sensors on silicon because it ensures the mechanical stability of the microstructure. For this reason, PS layers have been effectively used as material for local thermal isolation on bulk silicon and as material for the fabrication of micro-hotplates for low-power thermal sensors.
Preferably, the stack layer of porous silicon layer and empty gap has an area ranging from 0.2 to 1.0 square millimeter. The thickness of the porous silicon layer 207 and 305 ranges from 10 to 50 microns. The thickness of the empty gap 208 and 306 ranges from 2 to 10 microns. The chip area of the thermal flow sensor ranges from 2 to 4 square millimeter. Still preferably, the resistive heaters 202, 203 and 302 are made of polysilicon and the thermopiles 204, 205 and 303 each consists of 10 to 30 thermocouples made of n-type and p-type polysilicon or p-type polysilicon and aluminum.
It should be appreciated from the above that MEMS technology is amenable to create the thermal flow sensors having micro-heaters and integrated thermopiles with no moving parts, thus simplifying fabrication and operational requirements. Other advantages of thermal flow sensors are small size, short response time, low power consumption, higher sensitivity to low flow rates.
It should be understood that the thermal flow sensor 102 is installed in the housing 108 with its longitudinal direction perpendicular to the resistive heater(s) so that when there is no air flow through the housing 108, the temperature profile around the resistive heater(s) is symmetric and when an air flow is produced by a smoker inhalation, the temperature profile will shift from the up flow direction to the down flow direction, which represents the temperature change coursed by the air flow and can be detected by the thermopile(s) of the sensor so that an electrical signal is generated which represents the rate of the air flow.
It should be noted that the thermal flow sensor 102 has several significant advantages. The first is that the thermal 102 can be operated by pulse heating mode, in which the width of heating pulses can be as short as 5 ms so that power consumption of the thermal flow sensor can be as low as in the range of 0.01 to 10 mw. The second is that the thermal flow sensor 102 has very high dynamic range and can be measure air flow rate from 0.01 to 100 liter. The third is that the thermal flow sensor 102 has very fast response time which is as low as 5 ms.
More advantage is that the heaters 302 of the thermal flow sensor can be driven by a modulated voltage pulses so that the static (no air flow) output voltage of the thermopile 303 can be stabilized at a fixed value so that its amplified can have null offset.
Still more advantage is that the heater 202 and 203 of the thermal flow sensor can be respectively driven by two modulated power sources so that the static output voltage (no air flow) of the thermopiles 204 and 205 can be compensated each other.
It is accepted that the housing 108 is a tube having a diameter less than 15 mm and the air flow rate caused by an inhalation is less than 3 SLPM. It can be calculated that the type of the air flow in the tube is limited to be laminar flow since the Reynolds number Red is less than 2300 (As well known that For air flow in a tube, experimental observations show that laminar flow occurs when Red<2300 and turbulent flow occurs when Red<4000).
It is appreciated from the above that the airway for the air flow passing which is caused by a smoker inhalation can be configured to have a flow resistance to the air flow without any restriction so that the smoker feel like to smoke a real tobacco cigarette.
Reference to
It should be noted that the ASIC is configured to receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate detected by the thermal flow sensor 401 from the amplifier 402 which is caused by a smoker inhalation, determine a heating current that is used to heat the coil heater of the atomizer 407, and deliver an amount of the fluid vapor to the smoker which is wanted by the smoker regardless of a hard inhalation or a week inhalation and a longer inhalation or a short inhalation.
It still should be noted that the ASIC is further configured to receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate detected by the thermal flow sensor 401 from the amplifier 402 which is caused by an accident event such as mechanical vibration and temperature change, identify that the output voltage is not caused by a smoker inhalation, and determine no fourth action to be take.
It still should be noted that the ASIC is still further configured to receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate detected by the thermal flow sensor 401 from the amplifier 402, determine a drive current that is used to drive the light emitting diodes 408, and deliver the drive current to the light emitting diodes 408 so that the light emitted by the light emitting diodes 408 can simulate the light emitted by a lighted real tobacco cigarette with a gradually bright or gradually fade.
It still should be noted that the ASIC is still further configured to receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate detected by the thermal flow sensor 401 from the amplifier 402, calculate the amount of nicotine of each puff and the integrated amount over a period of time which is inhaled by a smoker, and enable the display to display the amount of nicotine of each puff and the integrated amount over a period of time which is inhaled by a smoker.
As shown in
In operation of the above voltage modulation circuit without an air flow over the thermal flow sensor 501, the resistive heater 503 is heated by the rectangular pulse voltage 508 provided by the voltage modulation circuit 507 and the thermopile 502 produces a static (no air flow) output voltage 511. The voltage modulation circuit 507 also provides a reference voltage 509 which is divided by the reference voltage adjusting resistors 505 and produces a divided reference voltage 511. The differential voltage of the thermal flow sensor output voltage 510 and the divided reference voltage 511 is amplified by the amplifier 504 in which the gain is adjusted by the gain adjusting resistors 506. The output voltage 512 of the amplifier 504 is send to the voltage modulation circuit 507 and the voltage modulation circuit 507 determines whether the modulated rectangular pulse voltage 508 is modulated again. If the output voltage 512 of the amplifier 504 is not zero the rectangular pulse voltage 508 needs to be modulated until the output voltage 512 of the amplifier 504 equals to zero. In this way the offset of both the thermal flow sensor 501 and the amplifier 504 can be constantly maintained zero.
As shown in
In operation of the above voltage modulation circuit without an air flow over the thermal flow sensor 601, the resistive heater 602 and 603 are heated respectively by the modulated rectangular pulse voltage 609 and 610 provided by the voltage modulation circuit 608 and the thermopile 609 and 610 produce respectively a static (no air flow) output voltage 611 and a static (no air flow) output voltage 612. The differential voltage of the output voltage 609 and 610 is amplified by the amplifier 606 in which the gain is adjusted by the gain adjusting resistors 607. The output voltage 613 of the amplifier 606 is send to the voltage modulation circuit 608 and the voltage modulation circuit 608 determines whether the modulated rectangular voltage pulses 609 and 610 are modulated again. If the output voltage 613 of the amplifier 606 is not zero the modulated rectangular voltage pulses 609 and 610 need to be modulated until the output voltage 613 of the amplifier 606 equals to zero. In this way the offset of both the thermal flow sensor 601 and the amplifier 606 can be constantly maintained zero.
Both the voltage modulation circuits 507 and 608 are application-specific integrated circuits and can be combined with the ASIC of
Voltage modulation can be realized by a pulse-width modulator (PWM) which is a simplest digital-to-analog converter (DAC). In this DAC type a stable voltage is switched into a low-pass analog filter with a duration determined by the digital input codes converted by the output voltages 512 and 613 of the amplifiers 505 and 606.
Voltage modulation also can be realized by a switched resistor DAC which contains of a parallel resistor network. Individual resistors are enabled or bypassed in the network based on the digital codes converted by the output voltages 512 and 613 of the amplifiers 505 and 606.
The embodiments and examples set forth herein were presented in order to best explain the present invention and its particular application and to thereby enable those skilled in the art to make and use the invention. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the foregoing description and examples have been presented for the purposes of illustration and example only. The description as set forth is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching without departing from the spirit of the forthcoming claims.
