Aerosol-Generating Device

The following description relates to an aerosol generating device.

Recently, demands for alternatives to overcome the disadvantages of general cigarettes have increased. For example, an inhaler is an instrument used for a user to inhale a composition, such as a drug, as liquid or gas, through the oral or nasal cavity in an inhalation process. Such an inhaler may include a container accommodating an inhalable composition, and the composition may be sprayed from the container through a thin tube to the oral cavity or nasal cavity through an intake to be inhaled by a user.

As an example of the prior arts, an inhaler is disclosed in European Patent Application No. 0017578 (Mar. 19, 1980).

The above description is information the inventor(s) acquired during the course of conceiving the present disclosure, or already possessed at the time, and was not necessarily publicly known before the present application was filed.

An aspect provides an aerosol generating device using a surface acoustic wave.

Another aspect also provides an aerosol generating device configured to control the atomization of a plurality of aerosol forming substrates.

Another aspect also provides an aerosol generating device configured to control an atomization amount.

According to an aspect, there is provided an aerosol generating device including a supplier including an aerosol forming substrate, a substrate unit configured to atomize the aerosol forming substrate, a surface wave generator configured to transmit a surface acoustic wave that atomizes the aerosol forming substrate to the substrate unit, and an inhaler from which a user inhales the aerosol forming substrate atomized in the substrate unit, in which the supplier is configured to move the aerosol forming substrate to the substrate unit.

The supplier may include a storage element configured to store the aerosol forming substrate and a channel element connected to the storage element and configured to move the aerosol forming substrate stored in the storage element.

The aerosol forming substrate may include different types of a plurality of liquids, and the supplier may include a first storage element configured to store a first liquid and a second storage element configured to store a second liquid.

The channel element may move the aerosol forming substrate through a capillary phenomenon.

The supplier may include a control element configured to control a rate of flow of the aerosol forming substrate that moves through the channel element.

The supplier may include a first channel element configured to move the first liquid stored in the first storage element and a second channel element configured to move the second liquid stored in the second storage.

The supplier may further include a third storage element connected to the first channel element and the second channel element and configured to mix the first liquid with the second liquid and a third channel element configured to move the mixed first liquid and the mixed second liquid from the third storage element to the substrate unit.

The surface wave generator may include a plurality of surface wave generating elements configured to generate a surface acoustic wave independently of one another.

The supplier may further include a first control element configured to control a rate of flow of the first liquid that moves and a second control element configured to control a rate of flow of the second liquid that moves.

The substrate unit may further include a first substrate configured to atomize the first liquid and a second substrate configured to atomize the second liquid and a reactor in which the atomized first liquid and the atomized second liquid react.

The surface wave generator may include a first surface wave generating element configured to transmit a surface acoustic wave to the first substrate and a second surface wave generating element configured to transmit a surface acoustic wave to the second substrate.

The surface wave generator may include a first surface wave generating element configured to transmit a surface acoustic wave to the substrate unit and a second surface wave generating element configured to transmit a surface acoustic wave to the third storage element.

The channel element may include a porous structure.

According to an aspect, an aerosol generating device may generate an aerosol by using a surface acoustic wave.

According to another aspect, an aerosol generating device may control the atomization of a plurality of aerosol forming substrates.

According to another aspect, an aerosol generating device may control an atomization amount.

Hereinafter, embodiments are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description is one of several aspects of embodiments and the following description forms part of the detailed description of the embodiments. In describing an embodiment, a detailed description of a well-known function or configuration is omitted to clarify the present invention.

However, various alterations and modifications may be made to the embodiments. Here, the embodiments are not construed as limited to the disclosure. The embodiments should be understood to include all changes, equivalents, and replacements within the idea and the technical scope of the disclosure.

In addition, terms or words used in the present specification and claims should not be construed in general meanings or dictionary definitions, and based on a principle that the inventor may properly define the concept of terms to best describe their invention, the terms or words should be construed as meanings and concepts consistent with the technical idea of the invention according to an embodiment.

The singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises/comprising” and/or “includes/including” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which embodiments belong. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

When describing the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, like reference numerals refer to like constituent elements and a repeated description related thereto will be omitted. In the description of embodiments, detailed description of well-known related structures or functions will be omitted when it is deemed that such description will cause ambiguous interpretation of the present disclosure.

Also, in the description of the components, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), (b) or the like may be used herein when describing components of the present disclosure. These terms are used only for the purpose of discriminating one constituent element from another constituent element, and the nature, the sequences, or the orders of the constituent elements are not limited by the terms. When one constituent element is described as being “connected”, “coupled”, or “attached” to another constituent element, it should be understood that one constituent element can be connected or attached directly to another constituent element, and an intervening constituent element can also be “connected”, “coupled”, or “attached” to the constituent elements.

The same name may be used to describe an element included in the embodiments described above and an element having a common function. Unless otherwise mentioned, the descriptions of the example embodiments may be applicable to the following example embodiments, and thus duplicated descriptions will be omitted for conciseness.

Terms such as “unit,” “module,” etc., as used in the specification may refer to a part for processing at least one function or operation and which may be implemented as hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.

is a block diagram illustrating an aerosol generating device according to an embodiment.

Referring to, the aerosol generating device according to an embodiment may include a surface wave generator, a supplier, a substrate unit, and an inhaler.

The surface wave generatormay generate a surface acoustic wave configured to atomize a liquid. The surface acoustic wave may be an acoustic wave transmitted along the surface of an elastic body substrate and may be generated from an electrical signal as a result of a piezoelectric effect. A surface acoustic wave generated in the surface wave generatormay atomize an aerosol forming substrate that has been met. The surface acoustic wave generated in the surface wave generatormay be transmitted to the substrate unit.

The surface wave generatormay be designed to operate to generate a surface acoustic wave only when a user inhales the aerosol generating device. For example, the surface wave generatormay include a respiratory sensor (not shown). The respiratory sensor mounted to the surface wave generatormay sense that the user inhales the aerosol generating device and may generate an electrical control signal such that the surface wave generator may operate only when the user inhales the aerosol generating device.

The suppliermay store an aerosol forming substrate and may supply the stored aerosol forming substrate to the substrate unit. The aerosol forming substrate may be a liquid form, and the suppliermay store different types of a plurality of aerosol forming substrates. For example, the aerosol forming substrates that may be stored in the suppliermay include a nicotine solution of a preset concentration. The aerosol forming substrates may also include a liquid including a flavor or a liquid including a health functional substance or another functional substance. Likewise, various types of liquids other than a nicotine solution may be stored in the supplier.

The substrate unitmay receive an aerosol forming substrate from the supplier. The substrate unitmay receive a surface acoustic wave from the surface wave generator. The surface acoustic wave transmitted from the supplierto the substrate unitmay atomize the aerosol forming substrate supplied from the supplier to the substrate unit. In other words, the atomization of the aerosol forming substrate may be performed in the substrate unit. The atomized aerosol forming substrate may be in an aerosol state such that the user may inhale.

The user may inhale an aerosol generated through the atomization in the substrate unitthrough the inhaler. An inhaler may include a flow path (not shown) through which the generated aerosol may move and a mouthpiece (not shown) through which the user may inhale.

However,only conceptually illustrates a connection and operation state of components of the aerosol generating device according to an embodiment without illustrating the physical arrangement of each of the components, and this also applies to the descriptions with reference to the following drawings.

is a block diagram illustrating the aerosol generating device according to an embodiment, including a channel element and a storage element.

Referring to, the supplierof the aerosol generating device according to an embodiment may include a storage elementand a channel element. The storage elementmay store an aerosol forming substrate. As described above, the aerosol forming substrate may be a liquid form, and the storage elementmay include a housing (not shown) configured to accommodate liquid.

The channel elementmay move the aerosol forming substrate stored in the storage elementin a direction toward the substrate unit. The channel elementmay connect the storage elementto the substrate unitand may cause a capillary phenomenon between the storage elementand the substrate unit. For example, the channel elementmay be a porous wick. The channel elementmay be a porous structure formed by sintering with polymers, ceramics, or the like. The channel elementmay be a paper filter or a cotton wick. The channel elementmay be formed in a microchannel that conveys a micro volumetric fluid. However, the form of the channel elementis not limited to the foregoing examples, and this also applies to the descriptions below:

The aerosol forming substrate that has moved through the channel elementto the substrate unitmay be applied on the substrate unitsuch that the aerosol forming substrate may be atomized easily by the substrate wave generator. In other words, the aerosol forming substrate supplied in a liquid form to the substrate unitmay remain applied on the surface of the substrate unit.

The aerosol forming substrate that has moved from the storage elementthrough the channel elementto the substrate unitmay be atomized by the surface acoustic wave transmitted from the surface wave generatorto the substrate unit, and the user may inhale the atomized aerosol forming substrate through the inhaler.

is a diagram illustrating the aerosol generating device according to an embodiment, including a plurality of storage elements.

Referring to, the suppliermay include a first storage elementand a second storage element. The number of storage elementsthat may be included in the supplieris not limited thereto, and an additional storage element may be included in the supplier as needed. The number of storage elements may increase or decrease, corresponding to the type of aerosol forming substrate to be atomized.

The first storage elementmay store a first liquid. The second storage elementmay store a second liquid. The first liquid and the second liquid may be the aerosol forming substrates described above and may be different types of liquid. The channel elementmay be connected to the first storage elementand the second storage elementand may supply the first liquid and the second liquid stored respectively in the first storage elementand the second storage elementto the substrate unit. The first liquid stored in the first storage elementand the second liquid stored in the second storage elementmay be mixed together while being moved through the channel element. The channel elementmay mix the first liquid with the second liquid and may supply the mixed first and second liquids to the substrate unit.

The first liquid and the second liquid moved respectively from the first storage elementand the second storage elementthrough the channel elementto the substrate unitmay be atomized by a surface acoustic wave transmitted from the surface wave generatorto the substrate unit, and a user may inhale the atomized first and second liquids through the inhaler.

is a diagram illustrating the aerosol generating device according to an embodiment, including a plurality of channel elements.