Liquid guiding structure, coil-less heating element and power management unit for electronic cigarettes
AssigneeFontem Holdings 1 B.V.
InventorsFucheng Yu, Zhuoran Li
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electronic cigarette includes an atomizer having a coil-less heating element having a heating section, two leads electrically connected to the heating section, and a liquid guiding structure. The liquid guiding structure includes two pads, a first pad and a second pad sandwiching at least a portion of the heating section. A gasket may be placed between a liquid supply and the first pad such that liquid is conducted from the liquid supply to the first pad.
Claims21
An electronic smoking device comprising an atomizer within a housing, the atomizer comprising a heating element including a first lead, a second lead, a plurality of electrically conductive fibers electrically connected to the first and the second leads, and at least a portion of the conductive fibers sandwiched between a first pad and a second pad.
A method of operating an electronic smoking device comprising,
- detecting an output voltage of a power source of a heating circuit having a heating element in the electronic smoking device;
- and
- estimating a discharging time of the power source as a function of the output voltage of the power source and a resistance of the heating element such that electrical energy from the power source converted to heat in a puff is substantially identical to a predetermined energy conversion value for one puff;
- and
- deriving a pattern of a waveform based on the estimated discharging time and a predetermined discharging time for each puff;
- and generating a control waveform for a switching element in the heating circuit based on the derived pattern.
A method of operating an electronic smoking device comprising,
- at a first time, detecting a first output voltage of a power source, and/or a voltage drop across a heating element operably connected to the power source via a first switching element, and/or a voltage drop across a reference element operably connected to the power source via a second switching element, wherein the first output voltage is detected when the reference element is connected to the power source;
- deriving a resistance of the heating element as a function of the first output voltage of the power source;
- at a second time, detecting a second output voltage of the power source;
- and
- estimating a discharging time of the power source for a puff as a function of the second output voltage of the power source and the derived resistance of the heating element such that energy converted in the puff is substantially identical to a predetermined energy conversion value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.