# US 11,896,051 B2 · Aerosol-generating system comprising individually activatable heating elements > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,896,051 B2 - Document ID: US11896051B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/262,303 - Filed: 2019-07-10 - Published: 2021-08-26 - Granted: 2024-02-13 - Earliest claimed: 2018-07-26 - Assignees: Philip Morris Products S.A. - Applicants: Philip Morris Products S.A. - Inventors: Irene Taurino - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11896051B2 ## CPC - A24F 40/42: Cartridges or containers for inhalable precursors - A24F 40/46: Shape or structure of electric heating means - A24F 40/50: Control or monitoring - A24F 40/53: Monitoring, e.g. fault detection - A24F 40/57: Temperature control - H05B 3/26: heating conductor mounted on insulating base {(for transparent areas H05B3/84, H05B3/86)} - 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 There is provided aerosol-generating system (200) comprising a cartridge (100). The cartridge comprises a heater assembly comprising at least four individually activatable heating elements (116, 118 . . . 140) arranged in an array. There is an aerosol-forming substrate on each of the heating elements. The system also comprises an aerosol-generating device (201) configured to engage the cartridge. The aerosol-generating device comprises a power supply (206) and control circuitry (212). The control circuitry is configured to control a supply of power from the power supply to each of the heating elements to generate an aerosol. The control circuitry is configured to activate the heating elements sequentially such that no two spatially adjacent heating elements are activated consecutively. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An aerosol-generating system comprising: a cartridge, the cartridge comprising: a heater assembly comprising at least four individually activatable heating elements arranged in an array, and an aerosol-forming substrate on each of the heating elements; and an aerosol-generating device configured to engage the cartridge, the aerosol-generating device comprising: a power supply, and control circuitry; wherein the control circuitry is configured to control a supply of power from the power supply to each of the heating elements to generate an aerosol, and wherein the control circuitry is configured to activate the heating elements sequentially such that no two spatially adjacent heating elements are activated consecutively. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to activate the heating elements in an order which maximises the minimum distance between any two consecutively activated heating elements. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) An aerosol-generating system according claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to activate the heating elements sequentially such that each subsequently activated heating element in the array, other than a first activated heating element, is as far as possible from a most recently activated heating element in the array. ### Claim 4 An aerosol-generating system comprising: a cartridge, the cartridge comprising: a heater assembly comprising at least three individually activatable heating elements arranged in an array, and an aerosol-forming substrate on each of the heating elements; and an aerosol-generating device configured to engage the cartridge, the aerosol-generating device comprising: a power supply, and control circuitry; wherein the control circuitry is configured to control a supply of power from the power supply to each of the heating elements to generate an aerosol, and wherein the control circuitry is configured to activate the heating elements in a sequence such that each heating element in the array is activated n times before any heating element in the array may be activated n+1 times, and such that, in the sequence, following an activation of a first heating element of the heating elements in the array, each subsequently activated heating element in the array is as far as possible from a most recently activated heating element in the array. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 4, wherein the first heating element is chosen such that no two consecutively activated heating elements are spatially adjacent. ### Claim 6 (depends on 4) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 4, wherein the activation of the first heating element of the heating elements in the array is a first activation of any of the heating elements in the array after the aerosol-generating system is turned on. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured to heat each of the heating elements to a temperature less than 200 degrees centigrade. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to supply power to at least one of the one or more heating element in response to a user inhalation. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 1, wherein the cartridge comprises at least eight heating elements. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 1, wherein each of the heating elements is configured to be activated only once. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 1, wherein there is a predetermined amount of aerosol-forming substrate on each of the heating elements. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 1, wherein each of the heating elements comprises a mesh and the aerosol-forming substrate is in direct contact with the mesh. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) An aerosol-generating system according to claim 12, wherein the mesh comprises a plurality of interstices and the aerosol-forming substrate is retained in the interstices.