Puff Sensing And Power Circuitry For Vaporizer Devices
AssigneeJUUL Labs, Inc.
InventorsAdam Bowen, Alex Cantwell, Nicholas Jay Hatton, Kevin Lomeli, Matthew Rios, Bryan White
Life of this patent
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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.
Claims30
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, electrical current to be delivered to a resistive heating element of the vaporizer device, the delivered electrical current causing heating of a vaporizable material for forming of an inhalable aerosol in the air flowing along the airflow path.
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, and the second signal representing a the second pressure, 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.
A vaporizer device comprising;
- a vaporizer device body shell;
- an internal skeleton of the disposed within the vaporizer device body shell;
- and
- a gasket configured to prevent passage of liquids between a volume within a cartridge-receiving receptacle of a vaporizer device body and a volume within the vaporizer device body shell containing internal electronic circuitry, the gasket comprising a connective feature via which a pressure sensing device that is connected to part of the internal electronic circuitry is exposed to air pressure in the cartridge-receiving receptacle, the gasket comprising a supportive rib positioned to be compressed between the vaporizer device body shell and a part of the internal skeleton.
A vaporizer device comprising an electrical contact pin for electrical coupling with a contact of a cartridge configured to be insertably received within a cartridge-receiving receptacle of a vaporizer device body, the electrical contact pin comprising a liquid-resistant feature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.