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US 6,540,154 B1Granted
Systems and methods for controlling fluid feed to an aerosol generator
AssigneeAerogen, Inc.
InventorsYehuda Ivri, Markus Flierl
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for controlling the supply of liquid to an aerosol generator comprises operating a liquid supply system to supply a liquid to a vibratable aperture plate of an aerosol generator which senses an amount of liquid adhering to the vibratable aperture plate, and controls operation of the liquid supply system to adjust the amount of liquid adhering to the vibratable aperture plate.
Claims61
An aerosolization device comprising:
- a liquid supply system that is adapted to hold a supply of liquid;
- an aerosol generator comprising an element having a plurality of apertures and an electrical transducer disposed to vibrate the element when energized;
- a sensor configured to sense an electrical characteristic of the electrical transducer that is dependent upon an amount of unaerosolized liquid in contact with the element;
- and
- a controller to control operation of the liquid supply system based on the electrical characteristic sensed by the sensor.
2 more elements
An aerosolization device comprising:
- a liquid supply system that is adapted to hold a supply of liquid;
- an aerosol generator comprising an element having a plurality of apertures and an electrical transducer disposed to vibrate the element when energized;
- a sensor configured to sense an electrical characteristic of the electrical transducer that is dependent upon an amount of unaerosolized liquid in contact with the element;
- and
- a controller to control operation of the liquid supply system based on the electrical characteristic sensed by the sensor.
2 more elements
A method of aerosolizing a liquid, the method comprising:
- providing an aerosol generator that is operable to aerosolize a liquid;
- supplying a liquid to the aerosol generator from a liquid supply system at a certain flow rate;
- operating the aerosol generator to aerosolize at least some of the supplied liquid;
- sensing an amount of the supplied liquid that remains unaerosolized;
- and
- regulating rate of liquid supply based on the sensed amount of unaerosolized liquid.
3 more elements
A method of controlling supply of a liquid to an aerosol generator, comprising:
- operating a liquid supply system to supply a liquid to a vibratable aperture element of an aerosol generator;
- sensing an amount of liquid adhering to the vibratable aperture element;
- and
- controlling operation of the liquid supply system to adjust the amount of liquid in contact with the vibratable aperture element.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.