Aerosol Generating Device and Method of Controlling Aerosol Generating Device

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0083120, filed on Jun. 25, 2024, and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0111624, filed on Aug. 20, 2024, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Various embodiments according to the disclosure relate to an aerosol generating device and a method of controlling the aerosol generating device.

Recently, there has been an increasing demand for alternative methods of solving the shortcomings of general cigarettes. For example, there has been an increasing demand for a system that generates an aerosol by heating a cigarette or an aerosol generating material by using an aerosol generating device, rather than a method of generating an aerosol by burning a cigarette.

Two main methods for controlling an operation of an aerosol generating device include a control method based on a user's puff number and a control method based on an operation time.

According to the control method based on the puff number, heating ends when the accumulated puff number reaches a previously set puff number, and accordingly, this control method may provide a smoking time less than the smoking time desired by a user. In addition, according to the control method based on the operation time, once heating starts, the heating ends as a previously set time elapses even when a user does not perform a puff motion, and accordingly, there may be a case where the cigarette has to be discarded due to the end of heating even though an aerosol generating material in the cigarette is not sufficiently exhausted.

In addition to an operation control method of an aerosol generating device described above, in order to increase user convenience, techniques for pausing or temporarily stopping an operation of the aerosol generating device and then resuming the operation of the aerosol generating device are known.

An aerosol generating device having a pause function, particularly a platform that heats a cigarette at a relatively high temperature rather than a platform that heats a cigarette at a low temperature, has a problem that an active ingredient included in an aerosol generating article is vaporized and consumed when the temperature of a heater is not lowered even during a pause.

Therefore, there is a need to lower the temperature of a heater during a pause to prevent the active ingredient included in an inserted aerosol generating article from volatilizing until the pause is released.

One embodiment according to the disclosure provides an aerosol generating device and a method of controlling the aerosol generating device which may ensure durability of an active ingredient in the aerosol generating device even when a pause function is provided, by lowering a heating temperature of a heater during the pause and performing reheating when the pause is released.

Problems to be solved through the embodiments of the disclosure are not limited to the problems described above, and problems not described may be clearly understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments belong from the present specification and the attached drawings.

Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the presented embodiments of the disclosure.

According to an embodiment, an aerosol generating device includes a heater configured to heat at least part of an aerosol generating article including an aerosol generating material, a storage storing a temperature profile of the heater and an operation time of the aerosol generating device, an output unit configured to output a notification corresponding to an operation state of the aerosol generating device, and a controller configured to control an output of the notification during the operation time and control supplying of power to the heater according to the temperature profile.

When the controller receives a user input signal to pause an operation of the aerosol generating device, the controller is further configured to control the supplying of power to the heater such that a temperature of the heater reaches a temperature lower than a temperature defined in the temperature profile, and when the pause is released, the controller is further configured to control the supplying of power to the heater such that the temperature of the heater reaches the temperature defined in the temperature profile and to cause the operation time to be extended by a paused time.

The controller may be further configured to cause the output unit to output a reheating completion notification when the temperature of the heater reaches the temperature defined in the temperature profile.

The controller may be further configured to cause the output unit to output a reheating notification when the pause is released and the supplying of power to the heater is controlled such that the temperature of the heater reaches the temperature defined in the temperature profile.

A reheating time for controlling the supplying of power to the heater such that the temperature of the heater reaches the temperature defined in the temperature profile may be previously set, and

the controller may be further configured to cause the supplying of power to the heater to be maintained until a previously set reheating time when the temperature of the heater reaches the temperature defined in the temperature profile at a time greater than the previously set reheating time, and to cause the output unit to output a reheating completion notification when the previously set reheating time ends.

The controller may be further configured to cause the output unit to output the reheating completion notification even when the temperature of the heater does not reach the temperature defined in the temperature profile within the previously set reheating time.

The controller may be further configured to cause the previously set reheating time to be extended by a preset time when the paused time is greater than a threshold time, and cause the previously set reheating time to be reduced by a preset time when the paused time is less than the threshold time.

The controller may be further configured to cause the output unit to output a notification corresponding to the previously set reheating time.

The controller may be further configured to determine that the pause is released when, after the pause, the user input signal for releasing the pause is received or a previously set pause time elapses.

The controller may be further configured to determine that the pause is released when a movement of the aerosol generating device is detected after the pause.

The user input signal may be a signal corresponding to at least one of a user button input, a user touch, a user puff, and a user gesture.

The controller may be further configured to control the supplying of power to the heater such that the temperature of the heater reaches a temperature higher than the temperature defined in the temperature profile when the pause is released.

The temperature defined in the temperature profile may be about 220 degrees to about 300 degrees, and the temperature lower than the temperature defined in the temperature profile may be about 120 degrees to about 180 degrees.

The number of pauses during the operation time of the aerosol generating device may be previously set, and

The controller may be further configured to cause the output unit to output an unavailability notification when a user input signal to pause the number of times exceeding a previously set number of times is received.

According to another embodiment, a method of controlling an aerosol generating device includes receiving a user input signal to pause an operation of the aerosol generating device, controlling supplying of power to a heater such that a temperature of the heater reaches a temperature lower than a temperature defined in the temperature profile, and controlling the supplying of power to the heater such that the temperature of the heater reaches the temperature defined in the temperature profile when the pause is released, and extending an operation time of the aerosol generating device by a paused time.

According to another embodiment, provided a recording medium having recorded thereon a program for performing, on a computer, a method of controlling the aerosol generating device according to another embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and the same or similar components will be assigned the same reference numerals regardless of the reference numerals in the drawings, and the same descriptions thereof will be omitted. With regard to the description of the drawings, like reference numerals may be used to represent like or related elements.

The suffixes “module”, “-er”, and “-or” for the components used in the following description are given or used interchangeably by considering only the ease of writing the description, and do not have distinct meanings or roles in themselves. The suffix “module” or “unit”, as used herein, may include a unit implemented as hardware, software, or firmware. For example, the suffix “module” or “unit” may be interchangeably used with the term a “logic”, a “logical block”, a “component”, or a “circuit”. The “module” or “unit” may be an integrally formed component, a minimum unit of the component performing one or more functions, or a part of the minimum unit. For example, the “module” or “unit” may be implemented in the form of an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

In addition, when describing the embodiments of the disclosure, the detailed description of the related known art, which may obscure the subject matter of the embodiments, may be omitted. Also, the accompanying drawings are only intended to facilitate understanding of the embodiments described herein, and the spirit of the disclosure is not limited by the accompanying drawings and should be understood to include all changes, equivalents or alternatives included in the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

Although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements or components, these elements or components should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element or component from another element or component.

When an element is referred to as being “connected to” or “coupled to” another element, it may be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected to” or “directly coupled to” another element, there are no intervening elements present.

The singular forms are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented as software including one or more instructions stored in a storage medium (e.g., a memory) readable by a machine (e.g., an aerosol generating device). For example, a processor (e.g., a controller) of the machine (e.g., the aerosol generating device) may call at least one instruction among one or more instructions stored from the storage medium and execute the at least one instruction. This makes it possible for the machine to be operated to perform at least one function according to the called at least one instruction. Examples of the one or more instructions may include codes created by a compiler, or codes executable by an interpreter. A machine-readable storage medium may be provided as a non-transitory storage medium. The ‘non-transitory storage medium’ is a tangible device and only means that it does not contain a signal (e.g., electromagnetic waves). This term does not distinguish a case in which data is stored semi-permanently in a storage medium from a case in which data is temporarily stored.

In the present disclosure, a direction of the aerosol generating devicemay be defined based on an orthogonal coordinate system. The x-axis direction in the orthogonal coordinate system may be defined as a left-right direction of the aerosol generating device. The y-axis direction may be defined as a front-back direction of the aerosol generating device. The z-axis direction may be defined as an upward and downward direction of the aerosol generating device.

is a block diagram of the aerosol generating deviceaccording to an embodiment.

According to an embodiment, the aerosol generating devicemay include a power supply, the controller, a sensor unit, an output unit, an input unit, a communication unit, a memory, and/or heaterand. However, it may be understood by those skilled in the art that some of the components shown inmay be omitted or new components may be added, according to the design of the aerosol generating device.

According to an embodiment, the sensor unitmay sense a state of the aerosol generating deviceor a state of the surroundings of the aerosol generating deviceand may transmit information corresponding to the sensed state to the controller. For example, the sensor unitmay include a temperature sensor, a puff sensor, an insertion detection sensor, a reuse detection sensor, an overwetting detection sensor, a cigarette identification sensor, a cartridge detection sensor, a cap detection sensor, and/or a movement detection sensor. The sensor unitmay further include various sensors, such as a liquid remaining amount sensor for detecting the liquid remaining amount of a cartridge and an immersion sensor for detecting immersion of the aerosol generating device.

According to an embodiment, the temperature sensor may detect the heating temperature of the heaterandThe aerosol generating devicemay include a separate temperature sensor for detecting respective temperatures of the heaterand, or the heaterandmay serve as a temperature sensor. For example, the temperature sensor may be used to measure an impedance of the heater. The impedance of the heatermay be correlated with the temperature of the heater. The temperature sensor may measure a current and/or voltage applied to the heater(or an induction coil). Based on the measured current and/or voltage, the impedance for the heatermay be calculated. The controllermay estimate the temperature of the heater, based on the calculated impedance.

For example, the temperature sensor may include a resistive element (e.g., a thermistor) whose resistance value changes in response to a change in temperatures of the heaterand. The temperature sensor may output a signal corresponding to the resistance value of the resistive element, and the controllermay detect the temperatures and/or temperature changes of the heaterand, based on the signal corresponding to the resistance value.

As another example, the temperature sensor may include a sensor for detecting the resistance values of the heaterand. The temperature sensor may output signals corresponding to the resistance values of the heaterand, and the controllermay detect the temperatures and/or temperature changes of the heaterand, based on the signals corresponding to the resistance values.

According to an embodiment, the temperature sensor may detect a temperature of the power supply. The temperature sensor may be disposed adjacent to the power supply. For example, the temperature sensor may be attached to one surface of the power supply(e.g., a battery) and/or mounted on one surface of a printed circuit board. For example, the aerosol generating devicemay include a power protection circuit module (PCM), and the temperature sensor may be disposed adjacent to the power supplytogether with the power PCM.

According to an embodiment, the temperature sensor may be disposed inside a housing (not shown) of the aerosol generating deviceto detect an internal temperature of the housing.

According to an embodiment, the puff sensor may detect a puff of a user.

For example, the puff sensor may include a pressure sensor. The pressure sensor may output a signal corresponding to an internal pressure of the aerosol generating device, and the controllermay detect the puff of the user, based on the signal corresponding to the internal pressure. The internal pressure of the aerosol generating devicemay correspond to pressure of an airflow path along which gas flows. The puff sensor may be disposed to correspond to the airflow path along which gas flows, in the aerosol generating device.

As another example, the puff sensor may include a temperature sensor. When the user' puff occurs, a temporary temperature drop may occur in the airflow path, a space where an aerosol generating article is inserted (hereinafter, an insertion space), the heaterand, etc. The controllermay detect the user's puff, based on a signal corresponding to the temperature of the airflow path, etc. output from the temperature sensor.

As another example, the puff sensor may include both a pressure sensor and a temperature sensor. In this case, the temperature sensor may measure a temperature that is used to correct an internal pressure measured by the pressure sensor. For example, the puff sensor may correct the signal corresponding to the internal pressure, based on the temperature measured by the temperature sensor, and may output the corrected signal. As another example, the puff sensor may output the signal corresponding to the temperature measured by the temperature sensor, and the signal corresponding to the internal pressure measured by the puff sensor. In this case, the controllermay receive the signals, and may correct the signal corresponding to the internal pressure, based on the signal corresponding to the temperature.

As another example, the puff sensor may include a capacitance sensor. In the present disclosure, the capacitance sensor may also be referred to as a cap sensor or a capacitive sensor. When the user's puff occurs, a temperature change and/or aerosol flow may occur within the insertion space of the aerosol generating article, and accordingly, an internal permittivity of the insertion space may change. The controllermay detect the user's puff, based on a signal corresponding to the internal permittivity, etc. of the insertion space output by the temperature sensor.