EP-4734781-A1 - AEROSOL-GENERATING DEVICE WITH PUFF DETECTION BASED ON TWO PARAMETERS

EP4734781A1EP 4734781 A1EP4734781 A1EP 4734781A1EP-4734781-A1

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an aerosol-generating device for generating an aerosol from an aerosol-forming substrate consumable by a user by taking a puff, the device comprising a first means configured to detect a first parameter indicative of a user's puff, a second means configured to detect a second parameter indicative of a user's puff, and a controller configured to determine an occurrence or non-occurrence of a user's puff based on the first parameter and the second parameter, wherein the first means and the second means are based on different detection modalities. The present disclosure further relates to a method for determining an occurrence or non-occurrence of a user's puff in an aerosol-generating device.

Inventors

BUTIN, Yannick
STURA, ENRICO
DUCROS, Maxime, Georges

Assignees

Philip Morris Products S.A.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260506
Application Date: 20240517

Claims (15)

1 . An aerosol-generating device for generating an aerosol from an aerosol-forming substrate consumable by a user by taking a puff; the device comprising: a first means configured to detect a first parameter indicative of a user's puff; a second means configured to detect a second parameter indicative of a user's puff; a controller configured to determine an occurrence or non-occurrence of a user's puff based on the first parameter and the second parameter, wherein the first means and the second means are based on different detection modalities, wherein the controller is configure to adjust a detection sensitivity and/or resolution of at least one of the first means and the second means, if a detected value of the first parameter or of the second parameter, respectively, is indicating a non-occurrence of a user's puff.
2. The aerosol-generating device according to claim 1 , wherein detection of a value of the first parameter that ultimately indicates an occurrence of a user’s puff is a necessary condition for the occurrence of a user’s puff being determined by the controller.
3. The aerosol-generating device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first means is configured to detect at least one of a temperature, a temperature change, a pressure, a pressure change, a velocity, or a velocity change in an airflow through the device indicative of a user's puff.
4. The aerosol-generating device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the second means is configured to detect a parameter indicative of an electrical power provided by the device during a user’s puff for aerosol generation, in particular a parameter indicative of a power change in the electrical power provided by the device during a user's puff for aerosol generation.
5. The aerosol-generating device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the second means comprises at least one current sensor and/or at least one voltage sensor.
6. The aerosol-generating device according to any one of’ the preceding claims, wherein the controller is configured to determine the occurrence or non-occurrence of a user's puff based on a comparison of a detected value of the first parameter with a predefined value of a first parameter threshold.
7. The aerosol-generating device according to claim 6, wherein a detected value of the first parameter indicates an occurrence of a user's puff if the detected value of the first parameter breaches the predefined value of the first parameter threshold.
8. The aerosol-generating device according to any one of the claims 6 to 7, wherein the controller is configured to adjust, in particular to decrease or increase, the value of the first parameter threshold, if a detected value of the second parameter indicates an occurrence of a user's puff, while a value of the first parameter detected during that puff indicates a nonoccurrence of a user's puff, in particular by not breaching the predefined value of the first parameter threshold.
9. The aerosol-generating device according to claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to determine an occurrence of a user's puff, if upon adjustment of the value of the first parameter threshold, the detected value of the first parameter indicates an occurrence of a user's puff, in particular by breaching the adjusted value of the first parameter threshold.
10. The aerosol-generating device according to claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to determine a non-occurrence of a user's puff, if the detected value of the first parameter still indicates a non-occurrence of a user's puff despite adjustment of the value of the first parameter threshold, in particular by not breaching the adjusted value of the first parameter threshold.
11 . The aerosol-generating device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the controller is configured to qualitatively and/or quantitively characterize a user's puff by allocating a pre-defined characteristic to the user’s puff, in particular by setting an operational property of aerosol generation during a user's puff to a pre-defined value, if a detected value of the first parameter indicates an occurrence of that user's puff, while a detected value of the second parameter indicates a non-occurrence of that user's puff.
12. The aerosol-generating device according to claim 11 , wherein the operational property is an energy provided by the device during a user's puff for aerosol generation.
13. The aerosol-generating device according to claim 12, wherein the energy provided by the device during a user's puff for aerosol generation is indicative for a volume of aerosol generated during a user's puff.
14. The aerosol-generating device according to any one of the claims 12 to 13, wherein the controller is configured to determine a volume of aerosol generated during a user's puff based on the determined value of energy provided by the device during a user's puff for aerosol generation.
15. The aerosol-generating device according to any one of the claims 13 to 14, wherein the controller is configured to set a volume of aerosol generated during a user's puff to a pre-defined value, if a value of the first parameter indicates an occurrence of that user's puff, while a value of the second parameter indicates non-occurrence of that user's puff.

Description

AEROSOL-GENERATING DEVICE WITH PUFF DETECTION BASED ON TWO PARAMETERS The present disclosure relates to an aerosol-generating device for generating an aerosol from an aerosol-forming substrate consumable by a user by taking a puff with improved user’s puff detection, and a corresponding system with an aerosol-generating device and aerosolgenerating article. The disclosure further relates to a method for improving a user’s puff detection in an aerosol-generating device. Aerosol-generating devices configured to generate an aerosol from an aerosol-forming substrate are generally known from prior art. For example, the aerosol may be generated by heating an aerosol-forming substrate that is capable of releasing volatile compounds when heated. As the released compounds cool down, they condense to form an aerosol that is inhalable by a user when puffing on the device. Once a user session is started, the volatile compounds in the aerosol-forming substrate get depleted. As a consequence, the quality of the aerosol produced may deteriorate during the course of a user session. Therefore, the aerosol-generating device may be configured to limit the user session in order to prevent the generation of lower quality aerosol. In addition, limiting the user session may be used to approximate the experience of consuming a traditional cigarette. In some aerosol-generating devices, the duration of a user session is determined purely by a finite operating time or by a fixed number of puffs that can be taken by a user. However, such limitations do not take into consideration the diversity of user behavior. For example, one user may take long puffs, thus depleting the aerosol-forming substrate within the finite operating time of the user session time or within the predetermined number of puffs. Vice versa, another user or the same user under different conditions may take less intensive puffs, so that at the end of the finite operating time or after the fixed number of puffs, there is still unconsumed substrate available. To mitigate this problem, it has been proposed to use the aerosol volume generated during a plurality of user’s puffs as a parameter for determining the duration of the user session. For such application, correctly and precisely detecting the occurrence or non-occurrence of a user’s puff is necessary for the accuracy of the determination of the generated aerosol volume. However, known aerosol-generating devices have the disadvantage that the detection of a user’s puff is prone to errors, since it is generally based on a single sensor, or on a plurality of sensors that determine a value of a common parameter. In particular, a user’s puff may be detected and characterized, although a user did not take a puff. Vice-versa, a user’s puff may not be reliably detected by the aerosol-generating device. As a result, the computation of the generated aerosol volume may be subject to a great error margin. Therefore, it would be desirable to have an aerosol-generating device with the advantages of prior art solutions, whilst mitigating their limitations. In particular, it would be desirable to have an aerosol-generating device that can more reliably detect the occurrence or non-occurrence of a user’s puff and therefore can more precisely characterized user’s puffs. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an aerosol-generating device for generating an aerosol from an aerosol-forming substrate consumable by a user by taking a puff, the device comprising a first means configured to detect a first parameter indicative of a user’s puff, a second means configured to detect a second parameter indicative of a user’s puff, and a controller configured to determine an occurrence or non-occurrence of a user’s puff based on the first parameter and the second parameter, wherein the first means and the second means are based on different detection modalities. Hence, the first parameter is determined, by the first means, according to a first detection modality, and the second parameter is determined, by the second means, according to a second detection modality. The controller is configured to determine the occurrence or the non-occurrence of a user’s puff based on the first parameter and the second parameter. Therefore, the controller is provided with redundant parameters, the first and the second parameter, for reliably determining the occurrence or non-occurrence of a user’s puff, the first and second parameters being however based on different detection modalities. Compared to known solutions, the determination of the occurrence or non-occurrence is hence not relied upon only one parameter or only one detection modality. As used herein, the term “detection modality” refers to a detection technique that utilizes a certain physical mechanism or certain physical properties for detecting or determining a parameter indicative of a user’s puff. For example, a detection modality may be a thermal detection modality, a