# US 11,439,184 B2 · Puff sensing and power circuitry for vaporizer devices > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,439,184 B2 - Document ID: US11439184B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/200,465 - Filed: 2018-11-26 - Published: 2019-05-30 - Granted: 2022-09-13 - Earliest claimed: 2017-11-24 - Assignees: JUUL Labs, Inc. - Applicants: JUUL Labs, Inc. - Inventors: Adam Bowen; Alex Cantwell; Nicholas Jay Hatton; Kevin Lomeli; Matthew Rios; Bryan White - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11439184B2 ## CPC - A24F 40/40: Constructional details, e.g. connection of cartridges and battery parts - A24F 7/00: Mouthpieces for pipes; Mouthpieces for cigar or cigarette holders - A24F 40/51: Arrangement of sensors - A24F 40/53: Monitoring, e.g. fault detection - H05B 1/0297: {Heating of fluids for non specified applications} - H05B 3/0019: {Circuit arrangements} - H05B 3/44: heating conductor arranged within rods or tubes of insulating material - A24F 40/10: Devices using liquid inhalable precursors - A24F 40/20: Devices using solid inhalable precursors - A24F: SMOKERS' REQUISITES; MATCH BOXES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES (inhaling appliances for medical purposes, shaped like cigars, cigarettes or pipes A61M15/06) - H05B: ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL ## Abstract Vaporizer device features capable of improving on current approaches to mitigating against device damage or inoperability occurring from liquid exposure (e.g. exposure to liquid vaporizable material possibly affecting a pressure sensor, internal electronic circuitry, and/or electrical contact pins) are described. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A vaporizer device comprising: an absolute pressure sensor positioned to detect a first pressure of air along an airflow path connecting air outside of a vaporizer device body with a vaporization chamber of the vaporizer device and a mouthpiece of the vaporizer device; an additional absolute pressure sensor positioned to detect a second pressure of air representative of ambient air pressure to which the vaporizer device is exposed; and a controller configured to perform operations comprising: receiving a first signal from the absolute pressure sensor representative of the first pressure and a second signal from the additional absolute pressure sensor representative of the second pressure, determining, based on at least the first signal and the second signal, that a puff is occurring, the puff comprising air flowing along the airflow path in reaction to a user drawing on the mouthpiece, and causing, in response to the determining, an electrical current to be delivered to a resistive heating element of the vaporizer device, the electrical current causing heating of a vaporizable material for forming of an inhalable aerosol in the air flowing along the airflow path. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) A vaporizer device as in claim 1, further comprising an additional sensor, and wherein the operations further comprise receiving a third signal from the additional sensor and adapting the determining that the puff is occurring based on the third signal. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) A vaporizer device as in claim 2, wherein the additional sensor comprises an accelerometer or another motion sensing device. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) A vaporizer device as in claim 1, wherein the airflow path includes a known and well-characterized orifice size, and wherein the absolute pressure sensor provides a measurement of a pressure drop resulting from a user taking the puff, wherein the operations performed by the controller further comprise: calculating an air velocity and volumetric flow rate; determining an amount of the vaporizable material converted to a vapor phase per unit time; and controlling an amount of the inhalable aerosol generated for a given volume of air based on the calculating and the determining. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) A vaporizer device as in claim 4, wherein the operations performed by the controller further comprise: controlling a temperature of the resistive heating element. ### Claim 6 (depends on 4) A vaporizer device as in claim 4, wherein the operations performed by the controller further comprise: providing a consistent aerosol concentration across different puff strengths. ### Claim 7 (depends on 4) A vaporizer device as in claim 4, wherein the operations performed by the controller further comprise: applying a correction for ambient pressure to correct for effects of atmospheric pressure on an amount of airflow. ### Claim 8 (depends on 4) A vaporizer device as in claim 4, wherein the operations performed by the controller further comprise: prompting the user to take a sample puff or a series of sample puffs; and characterizing and storing information regarding a relative strength of a puffing power of the user. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) A vaporizer device as in claim 8, wherein the operations performed by the controller further comprise: varying a size of the pressure drop required to indicate a puff based on the relative strength of the puffing power of the user to better detect actual puffs and reject false positives in detection of user puffing activity. ### Claim 10 A method comprising: receiving, at electronic circuitry, a first signal from an absolute pressure sensor of a vaporizer device and a second signal from an additional absolute pressure sensor of the vaporizer device, the first signal representing a first pressure of air, and the second signal representing a second pressure of air, the absolute pressure sensor disposed to experience the first pressure of air, which occurs along an airflow path connecting air outside of a vaporizer device body of the vaporizer device with a vaporization chamber of the vaporizer device and a mouthpiece of the vaporizer device, the additional absolute pressure sensor disposed to detect the second pressure of air, which is representative of ambient air pressure to which the vaporizer device is exposed; determining that a puff is occurring based on at least the first signal and the second signal, the puff comprising air flowing along the airflow path in reaction to a user drawing on the mouthpiece; and causing electrical current to be delivered to a resistive heating element of the vaporizer device in response to the determining. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) A method as in claim 10, wherein the vaporizer device further comprises an additional sensor, and wherein the method further comprises receiving a third signal from the additional sensor and adapting the determining that the puff is occurring based on the third signal. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) A method as in claim 11, wherein the additional sensor comprises an accelerometer or another motion sensing device. ### Claim 13 (depends on 10) A method as in claim 10, wherein the airflow path includes a known and well-characterized orifice size, and wherein the absolute pressure sensor provides a measurement of a pressure drop resulting from a user taking the puff, wherein the method further comprises: calculating an air velocity and volumetric flow rate; determining an amount of a vaporizable material converted to a vapor phase per unit time; and controlling an amount of an inhalable aerosol generated for a given volume of air based on the calculating and the determining. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) A method as in claim 13, further comprising: controlling a temperature of the resistive heating element. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) A method as in claim 13, further comprising: providing a consistent aerosol concentration across different puff strengths. ### Claim 16 (depends on 13) A method as in claim 13, further comprising: applying a correction for ambient pressure to correct for effects of atmospheric pressure on an amount of airflow. ### Claim 17 (depends on 13) A method as in claim 13, further comprising: prompting the user to take a sample puff or a series of sample puffs; and characterizing and storing information regarding a relative strength of a puffing power of the user. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) A method as in claim 17, further comprising: varying a size of the pressure drop required to indicate a puff based on the relative strength of the puffing power of the user to better detect actual puffs and reject false positives in detection of user puffing activity.