CN118201511A

CN118201511A - Apparatus and method for liquid sensing in a refillable article of an electronic aerosol supply system

Info

Publication number: CN118201511A
Application number: CN202280073684.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 史蒂芬·杰克逊; 哈丁·范·德·伯格; ***·阿尔-阿明
Original assignee: Nicoventures Trading Ltd
Current assignee: Nicoventures Trading Ltd
Priority date: 2021-09-03
Filing date: 2022-08-26
Publication date: 2024-06-14
Also published as: GB202117097D0

Abstract

An article for an aerosol provision system is described, the article comprising: a storage area for aerosol-generating material; an inlet orifice in fluid communication with the interior of the storage region through which aerosol-generating material may be added to the storage region; a first capacitive sensor comprising a first pair of capacitor plates arranged to measure the capacitance of the storage region; a second capacitive sensor comprising a second pair of capacitor plates arranged to measure the capacitance of the storage area; and an electrical contact through which capacitance measurements measured by the first and second capacitance sensors can be determined separately outside the article. An apparatus and method are also described.

Description

Apparatus and method for liquid sensing in a refillable article of an electronic aerosol supply system

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for liquid sensing in a refillable article of an electronic aerosol supply system.

Background

The electronic aerosol supply system (typically configured as a so-called electronic cigarette) may be of unitary form (where all elements of the system are in a common housing) or of multipart form (where elements are distributed in two or more housings that may be coupled together to form the system). A common example of the latter form is a two-part system comprising a device and an article. The device typically includes a power source (such as a battery) for the system, and control electronics for operating the elements to generate the aerosol. Articles (also referred to as terms including cartridges (cartridge), aerosol cartridges (cartomiser), consumables and transparent aerosol cartridges (clearomiser)) generally include a storage volume or region for holding a supply of aerosol-generating material/aerosol-generating material that generates an aerosol and an aerosol generator, such as a heater operable for vaporizing the aerosol-generating material. A similar three-part system may include a separate mouthpiece attached to the article. In many designs, the article is designed to be disposable, i.e., when the aerosolizable material is consumed, the article is removed from the device and discarded. The user obtains a new article pre-filled with an aerosolizable material by the manufacturer and attaches the new article to the device for use. In contrast, the device is intended for use with multiple continuous articles and is capable of recharging a battery to allow for long-term operation.

While disposable articles (which may be referred to as consumables) are convenient for the user, they may be considered to be wasteful of natural resources and thus harmful to the environment. Thus, alternative designs of articles are known that are configured to be refilled with an aerosolizable material by a user. This reduces waste and may reduce the cost of using the electronic cigarette by the user. The aerosolizable material can be disposed in a bottle, for example, from which a user squeezes or drops a quantity of material into the article via a refill orifice on the article. However, the act of refilling can be awkward and inconvenient, as the items are small and the volumes of materials involved are often small. The junction between the bottle and the article may be difficult to align and such inaccuracy may result in spillage of the material. This is not only wasteful, but can be dangerous. The aerosolizable material typically contains liquid nicotine, which may be toxic if in contact with the skin.

Thus, refill units or devices have been proposed that are configured to receive a bottle or other reservoir of aerosolizable material and a refillable cartridge, and automate the transfer of material from the former to the latter. There is therefore an interest in alternative, improved or enhanced features and designs of such refill devices.

Disclosure of Invention

According to a first aspect of some embodiments described herein, there is provided an article for an aerosol provision system, the article comprising: a storage area for aerosol-generating material; an inlet orifice in fluid communication with the interior of the storage region through which aerosol-generating material may be added to the storage region; a first capacitive sensor comprising a first pair of capacitor plates arranged to measure the capacitance of the storage region; a second capacitive sensor comprising a second pair of capacitor plates arranged to measure the capacitance of the storage area; and an electrical contact through which capacitance measurements measured by the first and second capacitance sensors can be determined separately outside the article.

According to a second aspect of some embodiments described herein, there is provided an aerosol provision system comprising an article according to the first aspect.

According to a third aspect of some embodiments described herein, there is provided a refill device for refilling an article from a reservoir, comprising: a reservoir interface for receiving a reservoir containing an aerosol-generating material and having an outlet aperture; an article interface for receiving an article of an aerosol-supply system, the article having a storage region for aerosol-generating material such that a fluid flow path is formed between an outlet orifice of a reservoir and the storage region of the article, the article being in accordance with any one of claims 1 to 8; a transport mechanism operable to move aerosol-generating material from the received reservoir to a storage area of the received article; and a controller configured to operate the transmission mechanism, and further configured to: acquiring (retriever) a first capacitance measurement measured by the first capacitance sensor and a second capacitance measurement measured by the second capacitance sensor while the transmission mechanism is operating; processing the first capacitance measurement and the second capacitance measurement to determine when the aerosol-generating material contained by the storage region of the article reaches a predetermined capacity of the storage region; and in response, the operation of the transmission mechanism is ended.

According to a fourth aspect of some embodiments described herein, there is provided an apparatus for refilling an article of an aerosol supply system, the apparatus comprising an aerosol supply system comprising an article according to the first aspect and a refill device according to the third aspect.

According to a fifth aspect of some embodiments described herein, there is provided a method of refilling an article from a reservoir, comprising: obtaining a first capacitance measurement of the storage region from a first capacitance sensor and a second capacitance measurement of the storage region from a second capacitance sensor as the aerosol-generating material moves from the reservoir into the storage region of the article; processing the first capacitance measurement and the second capacitance measurement to determine when the aerosol-generating material contained by the storage region reaches a predetermined capacity of the storage region; and stopping movement of the aerosol-generating material into the storage region upon determining that the predetermined capacity is reached.

According to a sixth aspect of certain embodiments there is provided a refill device for refilling an article for use with an aerosol-generating material, the refill device comprising: a delivery mechanism configured to deliver the aerosol-generating material to the article; an aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device; and a controller configured to: receiving a reference value from the article, the reference value being indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit; modifying a default mapping between a measured indication of a characteristic of the arbitrary article and an amount of aerosol-generating material in the arbitrary article using at least the received reference value; and controlling the refill device to supply an amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified mapping.

According to a seventh aspect of certain embodiments there is provided an article for use with an aerosol-supplying device, the article being configured to store aerosol-generating material and to be refilled with aerosol-generating material by a refill device, the refill device comprising: a delivery mechanism configured to deliver the aerosol-generating material to the article; and an aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device, the article comprising: a reference value indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit, wherein the refill mechanism is configured to receive the reference value from the article and modify a default mapping between the measured indication of the characteristic of the arbitrary article and the amount of aerosol-generating material in the arbitrary article using at least the received reference value, and control the refill mechanism to supply the amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified mapping.

According to an eighth aspect of certain embodiments there is provided a system for refilling an article with aerosol-generating material, the system comprising a refill device of the sixth aspect and an article of the seventh aspect.

According to a ninth aspect of certain embodiments, there is provided a method for operating a refill device for refilling an article for use with an aerosol-generating material with an aerosol-supplying device, the refill device comprising: a delivery mechanism configured to deliver the aerosol-generating material to the article; and an aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device, the method comprising: receiving a reference value from the article, the reference value being indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit; modifying a default mapping between a measured indication of a characteristic of the arbitrary article and an amount of aerosol-generating material in the arbitrary article using at least the received reference value; and controlling the refill device to supply an amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified mapping.

According to a tenth aspect of certain embodiments there is provided a refill device for refilling an article for use with an aerosol-generating material, the refill device comprising: a delivery device configured to deliver the aerosol-generating material to the article; an aerosol-generating material amount sensing device configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device; and a controller device configured to: receiving a reference value from the article, the reference value being indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing device; modifying a default mapping between a measured indication of a characteristic of the arbitrary article and an amount of aerosol-generating material in the arbitrary article using at least the received reference value; and controlling the refill device to supply an amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified map.

According to an eleventh aspect of certain embodiments there is provided an article for use with an aerosol-supplying device, the article being configured to store aerosol-generating material and to be refilled with aerosol-generating material by a refill device comprising: a delivery device configured to deliver the aerosol-generating material to the article; and an aerosol-generating material amount sensing device configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device, the article comprising: a reference value indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing device, wherein the refill device is configured to receive the reference value from the article and modify a default mapping between the measured indication of the characteristic of the arbitrary article and the amount of aerosol-generating material in the arbitrary article using at least the received reference value, and control the refill device to supply the amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified mapping.

These and other aspects of certain embodiments are set out in the accompanying independent and dependent claims. It will be understood that the features of the dependent claims may be combined with each other and that the features of the independent claims may be combined in other combinations than explicitly set out in the claims. Furthermore, the methods described herein are not limited to the specific embodiments, such as set forth below, but rather include and contemplate any suitable combination of features presented herein. Devices and methods for liquid sensing in a refillable article of an electronic aerosol supply system may be provided, for example, in accordance with the methods described herein, suitably including any one or more of the various features described below.

Drawings

Various embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail, by way of example only, with reference to the following drawings in which:

Fig. 1 shows a simplified schematic cross-sectional view through an exemplary electronic aerosol provision system in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

Fig. 2 shows a simplified schematic representation of a refill device to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable;

Fig. 3 shows a simplified schematic cross-sectional view of a reservoir refilling an article of an aerosol supply system according to an example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a simplified schematic longitudinal cross-sectional view of a first exemplary article according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a simplified schematic representation of a first capacitive sensor and a second capacitive sensor according to an example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of steps in an exemplary method of controlling refill of an article using capacitance measurements in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a line graph of measured capacitance versus fluid level in an article of manufacture using two exemplary capacitive sensors according to the present disclosure;

fig. 8A to 8E show experimental measurements and calculations, respectively, of an article in which the storage area is filled with a temperature aerosol-generating material over a 24 hour observation period (fig. 8A), a first capacitance from a first sensor (fig. 8B), a second capacitance from a second sensor (fig. 8C), a first capacitance corrected using the second capacitance (fig. 8D), and an error in the corrected first capacitance (fig. 8E);

fig. 9 shows a simplified schematic cross-sectional view through an exemplary electronic aerosol provision system in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

fig. 10 shows a simplified schematic representation of a refill device to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable;

fig. 11 shows a simplified schematic cross-sectional view of a reservoir refilling an article of an aerosol supply system according to an example of the present disclosure;

Fig. 12 shows a simplified schematic representation of a portion of the refill device in fig. 10 illustrating the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit in more detail, according to an aspect of the present disclosure;

Fig. 13 shows a line graph highlighting the relationship between the capacitance obtained by placing an article between two parallel capacitor plates and the amount of aerosol-generating material within the article;

Fig. 14 highlights a line graph showing two curves of capacitance obtained by placing an article between two parallel capacitor plates and the amount of aerosol-generating material within the article compared to a default relationship between the capacitance and the amount of aerosol-generating material in a default article;

fig. 15 highlights a line graph showing two curves of capacitance obtained by placing an article between two parallel capacitor plates versus the amount of aerosol-generating material within the article, wherein the two curves show different relationships; and

Fig. 16 illustrates a flow chart indicating a method for operating a refill mechanism in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 17a and 17b illustrate modifications to the method in fig. 16 according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Various aspects and features of certain examples and embodiments are discussed/described herein. Some aspects and features of certain examples and implementations may be conventionally implemented and are not discussed/described in detail for the sake of brevity. Thus, it should be understood that various aspects and features of the apparatus and methods discussed herein that are not described in detail may be implemented in accordance with any conventional technique for implementing such aspects and features.

As described above, the present disclosure relates to (but is not limited to) an electronic aerosol or vapor supply system, such as an electronic cigarette. Throughout the following description, the terms "electronic cigarette" and "electronic cigarette" may be used at times; however, it should be understood that these terms may be used interchangeably with aerosol (vapor) supply system or device. These systems aim to generate inhalable aerosols by vaporising a matrix (aerosol-generating material) in liquid or gel form, which may or may not contain nicotine. In addition, the mixing system may include a liquid or gel matrix and a solid matrix that is also heated. The solid substrate may be, for example, tobacco or other non-tobacco products, which may or may not contain nicotine. The terms "aerosol-generating material" and "aerosolizable material" as used herein are intended to refer to materials that can form an aerosol by the application of heat or some other means. The term "aerosol" may be used interchangeably with "vapor".

As used herein, the terms "system" and "delivery system" are intended to encompass systems that deliver a substance to a user and include non-combustible aerosol provision systems that release a compound from an aerosolizable material without burning the aerosolizable material, such as electronic cigarettes, tobacco heating products, and hybrid systems that use a combination of aerosolizable materials to generate an aerosol, as well as articles that include an aerosolizable material and are configured for use within one of these non-combustible aerosol provision systems. According to the present disclosure, a "non-combustible" aerosol supply system is an aerosol supply system in which the constituent aerosol-generating materials of the aerosol supply system (or components thereof) do not burn or ignite in order to facilitate delivery to a user. In some embodiments, the delivery system is a non-combustible aerosol supply system, such as a powered non-combustible aerosol supply system. In some embodiments, the non-combustible aerosol supply system is an electronic cigarette, also known as a vapor smoke device or an Electronic Nicotine Delivery (END) system, but it should be noted that the presence of nicotine in the aerosol generating material is not required. In some embodiments, the non-combustible aerosol supply system is a hybrid system that uses an aerosolizable combination to generate an aerosol, wherein one or more of the plurality of aerosolizable materials may be heated. Each of the aerosolizable materials may be in a form such as a solid, liquid, or gel, and may or may not contain nicotine. In some embodiments, the mixing system comprises a liquid or gel aerosol-generating material and a solid aerosol-generating material. The solid aerosol-generating material may comprise, for example, a tobacco or non-tobacco product.

In general, a non-combustible aerosol supply system may include a non-combustible aerosol supply device and an article (consumable) for use with the non-combustible aerosol supply device. However, it is envisaged that articles which themselves comprise means for powering an aerosol generator or an aerosol generating component may form a non-combustible aerosol supply system. In some embodiments, the non-combustible aerosol supply device may include a power source and a controller. The power source may be, for example, an electrical power source. In some embodiments, an article for use with a non-combustible aerosol supply device may include an aerosol-generating material, an aerosol-generating component (aerosol generator), an aerosol-generating region, a mouthpiece, and/or a region for receiving and retaining the aerosol-generating material.

In some systems, the aerosol-generating component or aerosol generator comprises a heater that is capable of interacting with the aerosol-generating material to release one or more volatiles from the aerosol-generating material to form an aerosol. However, the present disclosure is not limited in this respect and is also applicable to systems that use other methods to form aerosols, such as vibrating screens (vibrating mesh).

In some embodiments, an article for use with a non-combustible aerosol supply device may include an aerosolizable material or a region for receiving an aerosolizable material. In some embodiments, an article for use with a non-combustible aerosol supply device may include a mouthpiece. The region for receiving the aerosolizable material may be a storage region for storing the aerosolizable material. For example, the storage area may be a reservoir. In some embodiments, the region for receiving the aerosolizable material may be separate from or combined with the aerosol-generating region.

As used herein, the term "component" may be used to refer to a portion, section, unit, module, assembly, or the like of an electronic cigarette or similar device that includes several smaller portions or elements that may be located within an outer housing or wall. An aerosol supply system, such as an electronic cigarette, may be formed or constructed from one or more such components, such as articles and devices, and these components may be removably or detachably connected to one another, or may be permanently joined together during manufacture to define the overall system. The present disclosure is applicable to, but not limited to, a system comprising: two components detachably connected to each other, such as an article configured in the form of an aerosol-generating material-bearing component holding a liquid or other aerosol-generating material (alternatively referred to as a cartridge, cartomizer, pod (pod), or consumable); and a device having a battery or other power source for providing electrical power to operate the aerosol-generating component or aerosol generator for generating the vapor/aerosol from the aerosol-generating material. The components may include more or less than those included in the examples.

In some examples, the present disclosure relates to aerosol supply systems and components thereof that utilize an aerosolizable material in liquid or gel form that is held in a storage region (such as a reservoir, canister, container, or other receptacle included in the system) or absorbed onto a carrier substrate. Comprising means for delivering material from a reservoir for providing the material to an aerosol generator for generating a vapour/aerosol. The terms "liquid," "gel," "fluid," "source liquid," "source gel," "source fluid," and the like may be used interchangeably with terms such as "aerosol-generating material," "aerosolizable matrix material," and "matrix material" to refer to materials having a form capable of being stored and transported in accordance with examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1 is a highly schematic, simplified diagram (not to scale) of a generic exemplary electronic aerosol/vapor supply system 10, such as an electronic cigarette, presented to illustrate the relationship between the various parts of a common system and to explain the general principles of operation. It should be noted that the present disclosure is not limited to systems configured in this manner, and features may be modified in accordance with various alternatives and limitations described above and/or apparent to the skilled artisan. In this example, the e-cigarette 10 has a generally elongated shape extending along a longitudinal axis indicated by a dashed line and includes two main components, namely a device 20 (control or power component, section or unit), and an article or consumable 30 (cartridge assembly or section, sometimes referred to as a nebulizer, transparent nebulizer or pod) carrying aerosol-generating material and operative for generating vapor/aerosol.

The article 30 comprises a storage area, such as a reservoir 3, for containing a source liquid or other aerosol-generating material comprising a formulation, such as a liquid or gel, from which an aerosol is to be generated, the source liquid comprising, for example, nicotine. As an example, the source liquid may include about 1% to 3% nicotine and 50% glycerin, with the remainder including approximately equal amounts of water and propylene glycol, and possibly other ingredients, such as flavoring agents. Nicotine-free source liquids such as those used to deliver flavoring may also be used. A solid substrate (not shown) such as a portion of tobacco or other flavoring element through which vapor generated from the liquid passes may also be included. The reservoir 3 may be in the form of a reservoir tank, which is a container or receptacle that can store the source liquid, such that the liquid is free to move and flow within the confines of the tank. In other examples, the storage region may include an absorbent material (inside a canister or the like, or within an outer shell of the article) that holds the aerosol-generating material. For consumable articles, the reservoir 3 may be sealed after filling during manufacture so as to be disposable after the source liquid is depleted. However, the present disclosure is directed to a refillable article having an inlet port, orifice or other opening (not shown in fig. 1) through which new source liquid may be added to enable reuse of the article 30. The article 30 further comprises an aerosol generator 5 (in this example comprising an aerosol generating component) which may be in the form of an electrically powered heating element or heater 4 and an aerosol generating material delivery component 6. The heater 4 is located outside the reservoir 3 and is operable to generate an aerosol by vaporising a source liquid by heating. The aerosol-generating material delivery member 6 is a delivery or delivery device configured to deliver aerosol-generating material from the reservoir 3 to the heater 4. In some examples, the aerosol-generating material delivery component may have the form of a wick or other porous element. One or more portions of the wick 6 may be located inside the reservoir 3 or otherwise in fluid communication with the liquid in the reservoir 3 so as to be able to absorb the source liquid and transport the source liquid by wicking or capillary action to other portions of the wick 6 adjacent to or in contact with the heater 4. This liquid is thereby heated and vaporised and the replacement liquid is drawn from the reservoir 3 via continuous capillary action for transport to the heater 4 via the wick 6. The wick may be considered a conduit between the reservoir 3 and the heater 4 that conveys or transports liquid from the reservoir to the heater. In some designs, the heater 4 and the aerosol-generating material delivery component 6 are unitary or integral and formed from the same material that can be used for both liquid delivery and heating, such as a porous and electrically conductive material. In other cases, the aerosol-generating material delivery means may operate by means other than capillary action, such as by means comprising one or more valves through which liquid may leave the reservoir 3 and pass onto the heater 4.

The combination of the heater and wick (or the like) (referred to herein as the aerosol generator 5) may sometimes be referred to as a nebulizer or nebulizer assembly, and the reservoir with the source liquid plus the nebulizer may be referred to collectively as an aerosol source. A variety of designs are possible in which the parts can be arranged in different ways compared to the highly schematic representation of fig. 1. For example, and as mentioned above, the wick 6 may be a completely separate element from the heater 4, or the heater 4 may be configured to be porous and capable of performing at least a portion of the wicking function directly (e.g., a metal mesh). In this example, the system is an electronic system and the heater 4 may comprise one or more electrical heating elements operating by ohmic/resistive (joule) heating, but induction heating may also be used, in which case the heater comprises a susceptor in an induction heating apparatus. This type of heater may be configured in accordance with examples and embodiments described in more detail below. Thus, in general, a nebulizer or aerosol generator in this context may be considered to be one or more elements that fulfill the function of a vapor generating element capable of generating vapor by heating a source liquid (or other aerosol generating material) that is delivered to the vapor generating element, as well as a liquid transport or delivery element capable of delivering or transporting liquid from a reservoir or similar liquid container to the vapor generating element by wicking or capillary forces, or the like. As shown in fig. 1, the aerosol generator is typically housed in an article 30 of the aerosol-generating system, but in some examples at least the heater portion may be housed in the device 20. Embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable to all and any such configurations consistent with the examples and descriptions herein.

Returning to fig. 1, the article 30 also includes a mouthpiece or mouthpiece portion 35 having an opening or air outlet through which a user may inhale the aerosol generated by the heater 4.

The device 20 includes a power source, such as a battery unit or battery 7 (hereinafter referred to as a battery, and which may or may not be rechargeable), to provide power to the electrical components of the e-cigarette 10, particularly for operating the heater 4. In addition, there is a controller 8 for controlling the electronic cigarette as a whole, such as a printed circuit board and/or other electronic devices or circuits. The controller may include a processor programmed with software that can be modified by a user of the system. When vapor is required, the control electronics/circuitry 8 uses power from the battery 7 to operate the heater. At this point, the user inhales on the system 10 via the mouthpiece 35, and air a enters through one or more air inlets 9 in the wall of the device 20 (which may alternatively or additionally be located in the article 30). When the heater 4 is operated, it evaporates the source liquid delivered from the reservoir 3 by the aerosol-generating material delivery member 6 to generate an aerosol by entraining the vapour into the air flowing through the system, which aerosol is then inhaled by the user through the opening in the mouthpiece 35. When a user inhales on the mouthpiece 35, aerosol is carried from the aerosol generator 5 to the mouthpiece 35 along one or more air channels (not shown) which connect the air inlet 9 to the aerosol generator 5 and to the air outlet.

More generally, the controller 8 is suitably configured/programmed to control operation of the aerosol supply system to provide functionality in accordance with embodiments and examples of the present disclosure as will be further described herein, as well as for providing conventional operational functionality of the aerosol supply system consistent with mature techniques for controlling such devices. The controller 8 may be considered to logically include various sub-units/circuit elements associated with different aspects of operation of the aerosol supply system and other conventional operational aspects of the aerosol supply system in accordance with the principles described herein, such as display drive circuitry for the system, which may include a user display (such as a screen or indicator) and a user input detection via one or more user-actuatable controls 12. It should be appreciated that the functionality of the controller 8 may be provided in a variety of different ways, for example using one or more suitably programmed programmable computers and/or one or more suitably configured application specific integrated circuits/circuitry/chips/chipsets configured to provide the required functionality.

The device 20 and the article 30 are separate attachable portions that are detachable from each other by detachment in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis (as indicated by the double-headed arrow in fig. 1). When the system 10 is in use, the components 20, 30 are joined together by cooperating engagement elements 21, 31 (e.g., screws or bayonet fittings) that provide a mechanical, and in some cases an electrical, connection between the device 20 and the article 30. If the heater 4 is operated by ohmic heating, an electrical connection is required so that when the heater 4 is connected to the battery 5, an electrical current can flow through the heater. In systems using inductive heating, electrical connections may be omitted if there are no parts in the article 30 that require electrical power. An induction work coil may be housed in the device 20 and powered by the battery 5, the article 30 and the device 20 being shaped such that when they are connected, the heater 4 is suitably exposed to the magnetic flux generated by the coil to generate an electrical current in the material of the heater. The design of fig. 1 is merely an example arrangement, and various parts and features may be distributed between the apparatus 20 and the article 30 in different ways, and may include other components and elements. The two sections may be connected together end-to-end in a longitudinal configuration as shown in fig. 1, or in a different configuration (such as a parallel, side-by-side arrangement). The system may or may not be generally cylindrical and/or have a generally longitudinal shape. Either or both of these portions or components may be intended to be discarded and replaced when depleted, or intended for multiple uses through actions such as refilling the reservoir and recharging the battery. In other examples, the system 10 may be monolithic in that portions of the device 20 and portions of the article 30 are included in a single housing and cannot be separated. The embodiments and examples of the present disclosure are applicable to any of these configurations and others as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

The present disclosure relates to refilling a storage area for aerosol generating material in an aerosol supply system, whereby a user can conveniently provide new aerosol generating material to the system when a previously stored quantity has been exhausted. It is proposed that this is done automatically by providing a device referred to herein as a refill device, refill unit, refill station or simply a dock. The refill device is configured to receive an aerosol supply system or, more conveniently, an article from the aerosol supply system having an empty or only partially filled storage area, and a larger reservoir holding aerosol generating material. A fluid communication flow path is established between the reservoir and the storage region, and a controller in the refill device controls a transport mechanism operable for moving aerosol-generating material from the reservoir to the storage region along the flow path. The transmission mechanism may be enabled in response to a refill request entered by a user into the refill device, or automatically enabled in response to a particular state or condition of the refill device detected by the controller. For example, with both the article and the reservoir properly positioned within the refill unit, refilling may be performed. After the storage region is replenished with a desired amount of aerosol-generating material (e.g., the storage region is filled or a user-specified amount of material has been transferred to the article), the transfer mechanism is deactivated and the transfer is stopped. Alternatively, the delivery mechanism may be configured to automatically dispense a fixed amount of aerosol-generating material, such as a fixed amount that matches the capacity of the storage region, in response to activation of the controller.

Fig. 2 shows a highly schematic representation of an exemplary refill device. The refill device is shown in simplified form only to illustrate the individual elements and their relationship to each other. More specific features of one or more elements involved in the present disclosure will be described in more detail below.

For convenience, the refill device 50 will be referred to hereinafter as a "dock". The term is applicable because the reservoir and the article are received or "docked" (docked) in the refill device during use. Dock 50 includes an outer housing 52. Dock 50 is contemplated to be useful for refilling articles in the home or workplace (rather than a portable device or commercial device, but these options are not precluded). Thus, an outer housing made of, for example, metal, plastic or glass may be designed to have a pleasing appearance, so that it is suitable for permanent and convenient access, such as on a shelf, table, counter or counter top. The dock may have any size suitable for housing the various elements described herein, such as having a size between about 10cm and 20cm, although smaller or larger sizes may be preferred. The housing 50 defines two cavities or ports 54, 56 therein. The first port 54 is shaped and dimensioned to receive the reservoir 40 and engage with a refill reservoir. The first port or reservoir port 54 is configured to enable engagement between the reservoir 40 and the dock 50 and may therefore alternatively be referred to as a reservoir interface. Mainly, the reservoir interface is used to move aerosol generating material out of the reservoir 40, but in some cases the interface may perform other functions, such as electrical contact and sensing capabilities for communicating between the reservoir 40 and the dock 50 and determining characteristics and features of the reservoir 40.

The reservoir 40 comprises a wall or housing 41 defining a storage space for holding an aerosol-generating material 42. The volume of the storage space is large enough to accommodate many or several times the storage area of the product to be refilled in the dock 50. Thus, users can purchase a reservoir filled with their preferred aerosol-generating material (taste, intensity, brand, etc.), and use the reservoir to refill the article multiple times. A user may obtain several reservoirs 40 with different aerosol generating materials to have a convenient choice in refilling the article. The reservoir 40 includes an outlet orifice or opening 44 through which the aerosol-generating material 42 may be expelled from the reservoir 40. In this context, the aerosol-generating material 42 has a liquid form or a gel form and may therefore be considered as an aerosol-generating fluid. The term "fluid" may be conveniently used herein to refer to a liquid or gel material; where the term "liquid" is used herein, it should be similarly understood to refer to a liquid or gel material, unless the context clearly indicates that only a liquid is intended to be used.

A second port 56 defined in the housing is shaped and dimensioned to receive and engage the article 30. The second port or article port 56 is configured to enable engagement between the article 30 and the dock 50 and may therefore alternatively be referred to as an article interface. The article interface is used to receive aerosol-generating material into the article 30, and according to the present example, the article interface may enable additional functions such as electrical contact and sensing capabilities for communication between the article 30 and the dock 50, as well as determining characteristics and features of the article 30.

The article 30 itself comprises a wall or housing 31 having a storage area 3 within the wall or housing (but possibly not occupying all of the space within the wall 31) for holding aerosol-generating material. The volume of the storage area 3 is many or several times smaller than the volume of the reservoir 40 so that multiple refills of the product 30 can be made from a single reservoir 40. The article further comprises an inlet aperture or opening 32 through which the aerosol-generating material may enter the storage region 3. As discussed above with respect to fig. 1, the article may include various other elements. For convenience, the article 30 may be referred to hereinafter as a pod 30.

The housing 52 of the dock also accommodates a fluid conduit 58, which is a channel or flow path placing the storage area 3 of the article 30 in fluid communication with the reservoir 40, so that when both the reservoir 40 and the article 30 are properly positioned in the dock 50, aerosol generating material can be moved from the reservoir 40 to the article 30. The reservoir 40 and the article 30 are placed into the dock 50 with them positioned and engaged such that the fluid conduit 58 is connected between the outlet aperture 44 of the reservoir 40 and the inlet aperture 32 of the article 30. Note that in some examples, all or part of fluid conduit 58 may be formed by portions of reservoir 40 and article 30 such that the fluid conduit is only created and defined when reservoir 40 and/or article 30 is placed in dock 50. In other cases, the fluid conduit 58 may be a flow path defined within the body 52 of the dock with a respective orifice coupled to each end thereof.

The reservoir port 54 and the product port 56 may be accessed by any convenient means. An aperture may be provided in the housing 52 of the dock 50 through which the reservoir 40 and the article 30 may be placed or pushed. A door or the like may be included to cover the aperture, which may need to be placed in a closed state to allow refilling. The door, hatch, and other hinged cover, or sliding access element (such as a drawer or tray) may include shaped rails, slots, or recesses to receive and retain the reservoir 40 or article 30, which allow the reservoir 40 or article 30 to be properly aligned inside the housing when the door or the like is closed. These and other alternatives will be apparent to those skilled in the art and do not affect the scope of the disclosure.

The dock 50 also includes an aerosol-generating material ("liquid" or "fluid") delivery mechanism, apparatus, device or means 53 operable to move or cause fluid to move out of the reservoir 40, along the conduit 58, and into the article 30. A variety of options for the transfer mechanism 53 are contemplated.

Also included in dock 50 is a controller 55 that is operable to control the components of dock 50, and in particular to generate and send control signals to operate the transport mechanism. As described above, this may be in response to user input, such as actuation of a button or switch (not shown) on the housing 52, or automatically in response to both the reservoir 40 and the article 30 being detected as being present within their respective ports 54, 56. The controller 55 may thus communicate with contacts and/or sensors (not shown) at the ports 54, 56 to obtain data from the ports and/or the reservoir 40 and the article 30, which may be used to generate control signals to operate the transport mechanism 53. The controller 55 may comprise a microcontroller, microprocessor, or any preferred circuit, hardware, firmware, or software configuration; various options will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Finally, the dock 50 includes a power supply 57 to provide power to the controller 53 and any other electrical components that may be included in the dock, such as sensors, user inputs (such as switches, buttons, or touch panels), and display elements (such as light emitting diodes) and a display screen to convey information to the user regarding the operation and status of the dock. Moreover, the transmission mechanism may be electrically powered. Since the dock may be permanently located in a house or office, the power supply 57 may include a socket for connecting a mains power cable to the dock 50 so that the dock 50 may be "plugged in". Alternatively, the power supply may comprise one or more batteries, which may be replaceable or rechargeable, in which case a socket connection for a charging cable may be included.

Further details regarding the control of refill will now be described.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic representation of an article arranged to be refilled by a reservoir, wherein both the reservoir and the article are received in a suitable interface in a refill dock (not shown). The reservoir 40 containing the aerosol-generating fluid 42 has a nozzle 60 arranged as its outlet orifice. The nozzle 60 serves as a fluid conduit as shown in fig. 2. In this example, the nozzle has a tubular elongated shape and extends from a first end 61 to a second or distal end 62 remote from the reservoir 40, which serves as a fluid dispensing point. The fluid is held in the reservoir by a valve (not shown), such as at or near the proximal end 61, which opens when delivery of fluid to the article begins. In other cases, the surface tension may be sufficient to hold the fluid, such as where the orifice of the nozzle is small enough. The distal end 62 is inserted into the inlet aperture 32 of the article 30 and in this example extends directly into the storage area 3 of the article 30. In other examples, there may be a pipe, a pipe system or some other fluid flow path connecting the inlet orifice 32 to the interior of the storage area 3. In use, the aerosol-generating material 42 is moved from the reservoir 40 using the fluid transport mechanism of the dock, along a fluid passage defined by the nozzle 60 (acting as a fluid conduit), from the proximal end 61 to the distal end 62 where it reaches the fluid outlet of the nozzle and flows into the storage region 3 for refilling the article 30 with aerosol-generating material.

Fig. 3 shows only an exemplary arrangement, and the outlet orifice of the reservoir may be configured in other forms than a nozzle, and as described above, the fluid conduit allowing refilling of the article using the refill dock may or may not include the reservoir and portions of the article. However, typically, the inlet aperture of the article is configured to engage with the fluid conduit such that fluid from the reservoir may be expelled from the fluid conduit and into the storage region of the article. Engagement with the fluid conduit may be achieved by relative movement between the end of the fluid conduit (such as the distal end of the nozzle) and the article after insertion of the article into the article port of the refill dock.

As described above, the refill process is managed by the controller of the refill device and includes generating and sending a control signal to the transport mechanism to cause the transport mechanism to begin moving fluid from the reservoir into the article. This may be performed in order to dispense a fixed amount of fluid corresponding to a known volume of the product storage area, after which the operation of the transport mechanism is ended. More usefully, the cessation of fluid dispensing may be achieved in response to detection of a fluid level or amount in the article. The controller is configured to identify when the storage area becomes full and, in response, cause the transfer mechanism to cease transferring fluid. This enables the product to be safely refilled without spilling or pressure building up in the storage area, regardless of the presence of more or less fluid in the product at the beginning of the refill process. Thus, the product may be filled, or may be completely refilled from an empty state.

In the present disclosure, it is proposed to use capacitance measurements to determine characteristics of a fluid within an article received in a refill device.

In some examples, it is proposed to use capacitor plates incorporated into the article itself to obtain capacitance measurements. This arrangement enables the capacitor plates to be more closely and directly associated with the storage areas in the article to produce more accurate and sensitive measurements.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic representation (not to scale) of an exemplary article. The article 30 is defined by an outer housing 31 that defines the outer shape of the article 30 and forms an interior space for housing the various elements and portions of the article 30, such as discussed above with reference to fig. 1. In connection with the present concept, a storage area 3 for holding a fluid aerosol-generating material 42 is shown. Other parts not relevant to the concept are not shown for simplicity. The storage area 3 is shown as a simple cylindrical or cubical can, but again for simplicity, the storage area 3 may have virtually any shape, depending on the nature of the other parts within the article and the size and shape of the article. For example, the storage region may be annular and defined around a central channel for the flow of air and aerosol, and the storage region may house vapor generating components such as a wick and heater.

The outer housing 31 is formed of one or more walls, wherein the number of walls used to assemble the outer housing will be determined by the design of the article. The article 30 has a somewhat elongated shape with one end being the mouthpiece end 36. The outer shell is inclined inwardly toward the mouthpiece end to form a comfortable shape for the mouthpiece. The sidewall extends from the mouthpiece end toward a second end of the article 30 opposite the mouthpiece end 36. Towards the second end, the side wall has a recessed portion 37 for insertion into a receiving socket at the end of the corresponding device, thereby forming an aerosol-generating system. However, this is merely an example, and the outer housing may be shaped in other ways.

The article 30 is closed at a second end by a wall 33. This wall 33 comprises an inlet aperture 32 through which aerosol-generating material can be added to the storage area for refilling the article 30, and thus the wall can be considered an inlet wall. It should also be noted that in this example, the inlet wall 33 is located at the end of the article 30 opposite the mouthpiece end 36. To allow for refilling, the mouthpiece end may be inserted and held in an article port or interface in the refill device, exposing the inlet wall for connection with a fluid conduit. For example, the product port may receive a product with the mouthpiece end oriented downward, as shown in fig. 4, such that the inlet wall faces upward for refilling. This may be useful for some internal configurations of the article, such as a specific vapor generator, or a combination of vapor generator and storage area. Moreover, providing the inlet aperture in the wall of the article opposite the mouthpiece will typically enable the inlet aperture to be covered when the article is coupled to the device. Thus, tampering or accidental entry of contaminants into the storage area is prevented. However, the concept is not limited in this manner, and the inlet orifice and associated inlet wall may be otherwise positioned as part of the outer housing 31.

Also shown are electrical contacts 35 for electrically connecting the article 30 to a device with which the article forms an aerosol supply system. The contact will typically pass through the end wall of the outer housing 31, in this case also the inlet wall 33. The depiction in fig. 4 is a simplified representation that may include a plurality of electrical contacts that are placed as shown or otherwise for various purposes. In this case, contacts associated with the capacitor plates included in the article are provided for detecting fluid during refilling, and are connected with corresponding contacts in the refill device for communication with the controller of the refill device.

The article 30 includes two capacitive sensors, a first capacitive sensor 70 and a second capacitive sensor 72. Each capacitive sensor 70, 72 includes a pair of capacitor plates. Each pair of plates is arranged on or in the article 30 so as to be able to measure the capacitance of the storage area 3. To achieve this, each pair of plates is positioned such that some or all of the volume of the storage area 3 is disposed between the plates. The plate may be located on the inner or outer surface of the wall of the storage area 3, or on the inner or outer surface of the housing 31 of the article 30, or within the housing at an intermediate position between the storage area 3 and the housing 31. In some designs of the article, the housing 31 of the article 30 may also provide a wall of the storage area 3. The plates may be cut or stamped from a suitable electrically conductive material and mounted on an associated wall or housing or otherwise supported in the article. Alternatively, the plate may be formed by depositing a conductive material onto the associated wall or housing. In the depicted arrangement, each capacitive sensor 70, 72 has a first plate on the same side of the storage area that is visible in fig. 4, and a second plate on the other side of the storage area that is not visible. An electrical connection is formed between each plate and the contact 35 of the article.

Thus, each capacitive sensor 70, 72 is arranged such that the space between its capacitor plates comprises some storage volume of the article. When the storage area is free of aerosol-generating material, each sensor has a capacitance value that depends (in the usual manner of a capacitor) on parameters including the area of the plates, the distance between the plates and the dielectric value of the air occupying the empty storage area. When the storage area is filled with aerosol-generating material, the space between the capacitor plates is occupied by a material having a dielectric constant different from that of air. Thus, the capacitance of the sensor is different for a full storage area and an empty storage area. Applying an oscillating voltage across the pair of capacitor plates produces a current through the sensor, which can be detected and measured externally in a known manner to derive information about the capacitance at the time of measurement. Thus, the capacitive sensing circuit under the control of the controller is provided in the refill device together with electrical contacts that contact electrical contacts 35 on the article when the article is received in the article interface. The controller is configured to interrogate (interrogate, acquire) the capacitance of the capacitive sensor and can identify from the measurements a full storage area and an empty storage area.

The capacitance changes due to the presence of aerosol-generating material in the storage region and this change occurs gradually during refilling of the storage region, gradually changing from the value of an empty storage region to the value of a full storage region as the fluid increases to take over air in the storage region. Thus, it is also possible to measure the intermediate amount of aerosol-generating material with a suitable calibration and to provide the controller with a relation between the amount of fluid or fluid level and the measured capacitance or detected current, so that the amount of fluid can be determined from the measurements obtained from the capacitive sensor.

While this may be accomplished, at least to some extent, for many capacitor plate configurations, a full range of fluid level measurements may be obtained by using capacitive sensors that extend the entire height or depth of the storage area. This is shown in the example of fig. 4, where the plate of the first capacitive sensor 70 has a length from the base or lower end 3a of the storage area 3 to the top or upper end 3b of the storage area 3. This is the height of the storage area 3 when the article 30 is oriented vertically as depicted for refilling through the inlet aperture 34 in its end wall 33. The height of the storage area 3 thus corresponds to the direction in which the level of fluid increases or increases as aerosol-generating material is added to the storage area during refilling, and the capacitor plate extends in this direction. The plate of the first capacitive sensor 70 extends from the base 3a of the storage area 3, where the fluid level is zero or near zero when the storage area 3 is empty, to the top 3b of the storage area 3, where the fluid level of its maximum capacity is reached when the storage area 3 is full of aerosol generating material. In other examples, the plate of the first capacitor 70 may not extend too far along the height of the storage region 3, such as to detect a predetermined level of the storage region or fluid level of a volume of interest, which may be a partial volume or a full volume. Measurements down to zero levels may also not be of interest and detection of fluid levels near full capacity is considered sufficient so that the plate need not reach the base of the storage region 3. However, the arrangement shown in fig. 4 provides the maximum measurement range.

The article further includes a second capacitive sensor 72. The electrical connections and contacts in the article 30 and refill device and the capacitance detection circuit are configured such that the second capacitance sensor 72 can be used or interrogated separately from the first capacitance sensor 70 to obtain a first capacitance measurement and a second capacitance measurement. Since the purpose of the capacitance measurement is to determine information about the level or volume of aerosol-generating material in the storage region of the article, and its relationship to the maximum capacity of the storage region, the plate of the second capacitance sensor 72 also extends in the direction of the fluid level increasing during refilling. The second capacitance measurement may be used in various ways in combination with the first capacitance measurement in order to improve the first capacitance measurement, and the dimensions of the second sensor may be selected accordingly. The plates of the second capacitive sensor may extend the same distance or length as the plates of the first capacitive sensor 70, such as over the entire height of the reservoir from empty to full (maximum capacity), which is shown in phantom in fig. 4. Alternatively, the second plate may be smaller in area than the first plate in order to detect a change in fluid level over a smaller proportion of the volume of the storage region 3. For example the length or dimension of the second plate in the refill direction may be smaller than the length or dimension of the first plate, as shown in fig. 4. In particular, fig. 4 exemplarily shows a plate of the second capacitive sensor 72 positioned to extend from a zero fluid level at the base 3a of the storage area to a partial fluid level corresponding to less than the maximum capacity of the storage area 3. Thus, only the lower portion of the storage area 3 is covered by the second capacitive sensor 72. The lower portion may be up to 20%, such as 5%, 10% or 15%, of the total capacity of the storage area, although other values of no more than 20% may be used. For some applications, a value in the range from 20% to 100% (full capacity) may be selected as the extension length of the second capacitive sensor 72. The configuration shown in fig. 4 may be summarized as both the plates of the first sensor and the second sensor extending in a direction in which the fluid level increases during refilling (refill direction), wherein in this direction the second sensor plate may be shorter than the first sensor plate, and the first sensor plate and the second sensor plate are parallel to each other and side by side with respect to the refill direction. In this way, at least a portion of the extent or extension of the refill direction is covered by the two sensors. However, other configurations of two capacitive sensors for the article are not precluded. The capacitor plate has a width in a direction perpendicular to the refill direction. In some examples, the first capacitor plate may have the same width as the second capacitor plate, as this may make it easier to compare or combine measurements from the two sensors (capacitance is proportional to plate area). However, different widths may be used, such as to more conveniently mate with other components of the article, and make appropriate adjustments when processing capacitance measurements.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic view of the capacitive sensor device seen from above, in other words, viewed in the refill direction. The storage area 3 has a rectangular cross section in this plane (orthogonal to the refill direction). The first pair of plates 70a, 70b constituting the first sensor 70 are disposed on the outer surfaces of two opposite long sides of the rectangle, as are the second pair of plates 72a, 72b constituting the second sensor 72. The first pair of plates 70a, 70b is adjacent to the second pair of plates 72a, 72 b. For a rectangular cross section can, this allows the spacing of the two sensors between the plates to be the same to facilitate comparison between the measurements. However, this is not necessary and the pairs of plates may be arranged differently and compensate for capacitance measurements of different pitches, if desired. Each plate has electrical connections to electrical contacts 35 disposed on the exterior of the article (not shown). When the article is installed in the refill device, the contact 35 on the article is aligned with and thus connected to the appropriate contact 59 in the refill device, which places the capacitive sensor in electrical communication with the controller 55 and associated capacitance detection circuitry, which may be configured in a conventional manner. The controller 55 is configured, such as via suitable programming, to determine the level or amount of aerosol-generating material in the storage region from the capacitance measurements it obtains from the first and second capacitance sensors 70, 72. In response, the controller 55 generates and sends a control signal to the transfer mechanism 53 to cause the transfer mechanism 53 to stop, start, or otherwise alter its action to move fluid from the reservoir to the article.

Usefully, the controller and any associated circuitry can be configured to interrogate the first capacitive sensor 70 and the second capacitive sensor 72 separately to obtain respective first and second capacitive measurements. Due to the inevitably small size of the plates of the first sensor 70 and the second sensor 72, which are close to each other and the product, some interference may occur between the two sensors. Thus, the plate of one sensor may be grounded (grounded) while measurements are obtained from the other sensor, and vice versa. The controller may be configured to switch back and forth between the two sensors rapidly (depending on the measurement resolution required) throughout the entire or partial phase of the refill of the article.

As a specific example of refill control based on capacitance sensor measurements, the controller may be configured to use the capacitance measurements to determine when the article is full (or has reached some other predetermined fluid level) during refill, and in response, to control the transport mechanism to end movement of aerosol-generating material from the reservoir to the article. The user may then remove the refill product from the refill device and use it again in the aerosol-generating system.

While the capacitance measurement from the first capacitance sensor alone may be used to detect the entire article storage area, it is proposed herein that benefits may be obtained by also using the capacitance measurement from the second capacitance sensor to modify, adjust, correct, calibrate, enhance or improve the first capacitance measurement to more accurately determine the fluid level in the article. In this way, the refill action may be more appropriately terminated to achieve a desired level of refill in the article, thereby reducing the likelihood of overfilling or underfilling. Overfilling increases the pressure in the storage area, thereby increasing the likelihood of leakage and spillage. Underfilling means that the product becomes empty again more quickly, requiring more frequent refill actions. It is therefore proposed to take or obtain both the first capacitance measurement and the second capacitance measurement during refilling and to process both measurements in order to determine when a required amount of aerosol-generating material has been delivered (in other words, the storage region has been filled to a predetermined desired capacity, such as a full or maximum capacity), in response to which refilling is ended.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method for refilling an article with capacitive sensor control. In a first step S1, the refill device is refilled under the control of the controller by operating the transfer mechanism to move fluid from the reservoir into the article. During refilling, in a second step S2, a first capacitance measurement is obtained from the first capacitance sensor and a second capacitance measurement is obtained from the second capacitance sensor. In a third step S3, the first capacitance measurement and the second capacitance measurement are processed by the controller in order to derive or determine a value of the current fluid level or fluid quantity in the article. The actual fluid level value may be determined or the data may be retained in the form of a capacitance, where it is known how the capacitance value maps to the fluid level value. Moving to the next step S4, the determined fluid level is compared with a predetermined required fluid level, such as the level at which the storage area is filled to maximum capacity. As in step S3, the determined fluid level and the required fluid level may be the actual fluid level or fluid quantity (such as the weight or volume of the fluid) or may be represented by a capacitance in order to reduce the number of processing steps. In step S5, the result of the comparison is evaluated. If "yes" is found, the desired fluid level has been reached (or exceeded), the method moves to a final step S6 and the transfer mechanism is turned off, so that the movement of fluid into the article is ended and the refill action is terminated. On the other hand, if it is found in step S5 that the desired fluid level has not been reached, the method returns to step S1 so that the fluid continues to move into the article. In a continuous cycle of the method, no additional measurement of the second capacitance may be required, so in step S2, obtaining the second capacitance measurement may be optional depending on the use of the second capacitance measurement.

The second capacitance measurement may be utilized in a variety of ways. For example, the second capacitive sensor may be configured to have the same extension length as the first capacitive sensor in the refill direction (an example of which is shown in dashed lines in fig. 6). Thus, both sensors can measure the fluid level over the entire depth of the storage area and detect that the fluid level has reached the desired level. Thus, the processing of the first capacitance measurement and the second capacitance measurement may include averaging the two measurements to generate a single indication of fluid level for comparison to a desired level. This can also be achieved with smaller capacitive sensors, which extend for example over a shorter height of the storage area, which height comprises a maximum fill level, but does not comprise a zero fill level and a lower fill level.

In other examples, the second capacitance measurement may be used to provide a correction or adjustment to the first capacitance measurement to improve accuracy. Various conditions and circumstances may deviate the capacitance measurement from the expected value. In the present application, the fluid level determined from the capacitance measurements is compared to the desired fluid level, and any change in the determined fluid level will affect when the desired fluid level is found to be reached, possibly resulting in small errors in overfilling or underfilling. As an example, the dielectric properties of the aerosol-generating material may vary with temperature, such that for any given fluid level, the detected capacitance may similarly vary with temperature.

Thus, in some examples, it is proposed that a second capacitive sensor is used as a reference sensor, providing a capacitance measurement that can be used to compensate for fluctuations in environmental conditions such as temperature. For this function, the second capacitive sensor may be configured in the non-dashed configuration in fig. 4, in other words, the extension length of the second capacitive sensor in the refill direction is smaller than the extension length of the first capacitive sensor, and optionally significantly smaller. If the plates of the second capacitive sensor are positioned towards the base of the storage area, possibly covering a zero filling level, the space between the plates in the storage area is filled with fluid early in the refill process. As the fluid level moves up the extended length of the second sensor plate, the capacitance changes, but after the fluid level passes the upper edge of the plates, there is no longer any significant change in the space between the plates and the capacitance value is saturated. With further increases in fluid level, the capacitance remains substantially unchanged. Thus, the capacitance measurement from the second capacitance sensor may be processed to represent the characteristics or properties of the aerosol-generating material at that time and used to compensate for the reading from the first capacitance sensor. For example, if the temperature of the fluid increases the capacitance at the time of refill, both the first capacitance measurement and the second capacitance measurement will be higher, but the second measurement will be a substantially fixed value after saturation. The first measurement will change with increasing fluid level, with respect to a higher reference level caused by temperature. Subtracting the second measurement (or a similar mathematical process) from the first measurement (plus any manipulation to adjust for differences between sensors, such as different plate sizes or spacings) will leave only a portion of the second measurement caused by the fluid level, thus eliminating the effect of temperature and enabling a more accurate determination of the fluid level.

Fig. 7 shows a line graph of the experimentally measured capacitance as a function of the amount of fluid in the storage area for two different capacitive sensors. The capacitive sensors are all second capacitive sensors configured as described above to extend upwardly from the base of the storage area a distance less than the full height of the storage area. The storage area has a height of 23 mm. One sensor has a capacitor plate extending 10mm in the refill direction and the other sensor has a capacitor plate extending 3mm in the refill direction. The line graph shows the capacitance (as raw output from the sensor; vertical axis) measured as the amount of fluid in the storage area increases (as weight of the product or pod; horizontal axis). The vertical line indicates the amount of fluid or fluid level corresponding to the maximum height of the sensor plate, in other words the point at which the two sensors become saturated. As expected, the measured capacitance changes gradually and steadily (in this example, decreases) as the fluid level increases until it passes the top edge of the sensor plate. Beyond this point, the measured capacitance tended to plateau and no significant further change was observed. This is the saturation value of the capacitive sensor, which may be used to correct or adjust the output of a first capacitive sensor configured to detect the fluid level. Thus, it may be considered unnecessary to continue to acquire the capacitance value of the second capacitive sensor throughout the refill time. Alternatively, after saturation is reached, the measurement may end, with the final value taken as the second capacitance measurement. When the known filling level has passed the saturation level, a single measurement may be made. Alternatively, the measurement may continue and the average saturation value may be calculated from a plurality of measurements obtained on the saturation platform.

Regardless of how many measurements are taken from the second capacitive sensor, the first capacitive measurement may be better corrected if the second capacitive measurement saturates relatively early in the refill process. Thus, a shorter sensor may be preferred, which means that the second capacitor plate extends a relatively small distance in the refill direction. For example, a height of no more than 20% of the depth of the maximum capacity of the storage area is useful, such as 5% or 10% or 25%. This smaller height can also be expressed as a proportion of the corresponding dimension of the first capacitive sensor plate (regardless of how much of the tank height is covered by the first capacitive sensor). Thus, the size of the plate of the second sensor in the refill direction may be no greater than 20% (such as 5%, 10%, 15% or 20%) of the size of the plate of the first sensor in the refill direction.

Fig. 8A to 8E show line graphs of data obtained from experimental studies of temperature correction of fluid level sensing using two capacitive sensors.

Fig. 8A shows the temperature T of the aerosol-generating material in the storage area of the article measured over a period of 24 hours. During the measurement period, the storage area is filled and remains full. Some temperature variation around room temperature (20 ℃) can be seen, with a slight upward trend over the measurement period.

Fig. 8B shows capacitance measurements C (as raw data) collected over the same 24 hour period from a first capacitive sensor configured to detect the maximum volume of fluid of an article. Although the storage area remains full, such that the fluid level is constant over this period of time, the measured capacitance shows a change. Note that this variation follows the variation in temperature shown in fig. 8A, where higher temperatures cause the capacitance measurement to decrease, so the overall trend is downward over the measurement period. Thus, the change in temperature may be considered an important contributor to capacitance-based fluid level detection.

Fig. 8C shows a capacitance measurement C (as raw data) collected from a second capacitance sensor configured as a reference sensor as described, the second capacitance sensor having a smaller height than the first capacitance sensor. Comparison with fig. 8B shows that the overall change over time is very similar, also following fluctuations in temperature. Note that the size of the second capacitance measurement is different from the size of the first capacitance measurement due to the different dimensions of the capacitor plates.

Fig. 8D shows the first capacitance measurement of fig. 8B compensated or corrected using the second capacitance measurement of fig. 8C. Note that the downward trend over time due to the temperature rise has been eliminated, presenting a more horizontal line, reflecting the constant amount of fluid in the article. The fluctuations are also much smaller than the uncompensated measurement results.

Fig. 8E shows the calculated percentage error in the compensated first capacitance measurement. This error is mainly in the range of + -0.5%, indicating that the proposed method of correcting fluid level measurements is very useful.

In some designs of the article, the cross-section through the storage area and associated capacitor plate (such as the example in fig. 5) remains substantially constant in the direction of refilling. In this case, the relationship between the capacitance measured at the first capacitive sensor and the amount of aerosol-generating material in the storage region may be substantially linear, wherein the capacitance varies upwardly or downwardly at a relatively constant rate (depending on the dielectric properties of the material) as the amount of material occupying the space between the capacitor plates increases. However, in other designs, the cross-sectional configuration is not constant with the height of the article. For example, the annular storage region may surround a central airflow channel having items such as heaters and wicks therein. The airflow channel may not be of constant width. The side walls of the storage area may not be vertical. The capacitor plates may not be vertical. Other components of the article may be interposed between the capacitor plate and the storage area. Any of these and other configurations means that at any given height, the material between the capacitor plates may be different from at some other height, and/or that different amounts of fluid may be present in the spaces between the plates, and/or that the spacing of the plates is different. Thus, the capacitance change created by the addition of fluid has a rate that varies with the height of the storage area. There is a non-linear relationship between the measured capacitance and the liquid level. Thus, preferably, the controller should be calibrated to apply the relevant non-linear relationship in determining whether the storage region contains the required amount of aerosol-generating material.

The examples in fig. 4 and 5 show capacitor plates configured as both first and second capacitors of a planar element. However, this is not required, and the plate may be otherwise shaped and conveniently positioned within the overall configuration of the article. As a further alternative, the heating element in the article may be used as a capacitor plate for one or both capacitive sensors if the heating element is provided with suitable electrical connections and is located in a suitable position within the outer limits of the storage area. For example, an elongated heating element extending in the same direction as the refill direction may be used as a plate of the first capacitive sensor. A heating element with a smaller extension in this direction can be used as a plate of the second capacitive sensor.

The examples discussed so far incorporate at least the capacitor plates of the capacitive sensor into the article. Most of the capacitive detector circuit is conveniently included in the refill device, but some or all may be included in the article. The exact division of the capacitive sensing portion between the article and the refill device is not important as long as the controller in the refill device is able to obtain a capacitance measurement that is related to the storage area in the article. Placing the capacitor plates in the article enables the plates to be very close to the storage area, thereby reducing the distance between the plates and the amount of extraneous parts between the plates. However, this increases the cost and complexity of the article. Similar results may be obtained by incorporating one or more capacitor plates into the product interface of the refill unit and suitably positioned such that when the product is properly inserted into the product interface in preparation for refilling, the storage area is located in the space between the pairs of capacitor plates. In this arrangement, the capacitor sensing may also be used by the controller to detect the presence of an article in the refill device, in response to which a refill action may be initiated.

Further, in this regard, the refill device may include one or more separate sensors configured to enable the controller to detect the presence of an article in the refill device. The separate sensor may or may not be a capacitive sensor and may be used in combination with a fluid level capacitive sensor in the article or in a refill dock. The output of the separate sensor may be used to check whether the product is present and properly positioned in the refill device so as to be suitable for initiating a filling action. Moreover, an inspection of the correct position of the article before the capacitance measurement begins indicates that the capacitive sensor is also properly positioned with respect to the article and/or the refill device. This allows the capacitance measurement obtained from the capacitive sensor to be considered accurate. Incorrect measurements and readings, which may falsely indicate whether the article is filled as desired, may thus be avoided.

Wherever the capacitor plate of the capacitive sensor is located in the article or refill device, one or more electromagnetic shields associated with the plate may be included. Any such shield may isolate the plate from any stray electromagnetic fields that may cause interference and introduce errors into the capacitance measurement. Thereby improving the accuracy of the measurement.

An additional or alternative technique for improving accuracy is for the controller to take other measurements, measurements or readings into account in conjunction with the capacitance measurement in determining whether the fluid level in the storage area has reached the desired fluid level. An unexpected difference between information from two different sources, both of which can provide an indication of the fluid level in the storage area, can be used as evidence of measurement errors. This may be used to cause the controller to end the filling action and/or to return an error notification or message to the user via a display or the like on the refill dock. As an example, the controller may monitor the operation of the transport mechanism as the transport mechanism operates to move fluid from the reservoir to the storage area. Such as the duration of operation of the transfer mechanism or the distance moved by a moving part comprised in the transfer mechanism, may be used to estimate the amount of fluid that has been transferred. This estimate may be cross checked with the fluid level determined by the capacitive sensor to identify or reveal inaccuracies.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the following is provided.

In some embodiments, the non-combustible aerosol supply system is an aerosol-generating material heating system, also referred to as a heated non-combustion system. One example of such a system is a tobacco heating system.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure relates to a consumable comprising an aerosol-generating material and configured for use with a non-combustible aerosol supply device. These consumables are sometimes referred to as articles of manufacture in this disclosure.

In some embodiments, the region for receiving aerosol-generating material may be separate from or combined with the aerosol-generating region (which is the region where aerosol is generated). In some embodiments, an article for use with a non-combustible aerosol supply device may include a filter and/or an aerosol modifier, the generated aerosol being delivered to a user after passing through the filter and/or aerosol modifier.

In some examples, the present disclosure relates to aerosol-supply systems and components thereof that utilize an aerosol-generating material in liquid, gel, or solid form that is held in an aerosol-generating material storage area (such as a reservoir, canister, container, or other receptacle included in the system) or absorbed onto a carrier substrate. Comprising means for delivering aerosol-generating material from an aerosol-generating material storage region for providing aerosol-generating material to an aerosol generator for generating a vapour/aerosol. The terms "liquid," "gel," "solid," "fluid," "source liquid," "source gel," "source fluid," and the like may be used interchangeably with terms such as "aerosol-generating material," "nebulizable matrix material," and "matrix material" to refer to materials having a form that can be stored and transported in accordance with examples of the present disclosure.

As used herein, an "aerosol-generating material" is a material capable of generating an aerosol, such as when heated, irradiated, or otherwise energized. The aerosol-generating material may be in the form of a solid, liquid or gel, for example, which may or may not contain an active substance and/or a flavouring. In some embodiments, the aerosol-generating material may comprise an "amorphous solid," which may alternatively be referred to as a "monolithic solid" (i.e., non-fibrous). In some embodiments, the amorphous solid may be a xerogel. Amorphous solids are solid materials in which some fluid (such as a liquid) may be retained. In some embodiments, the aerosol-generating material may, for example, comprise from about 50wt%, 60wt%, or 70wt% amorphous solids to about 90wt%, 95wt%, or 100wt% amorphous solids. In some embodiments, the aerosol-generating material may comprise one or more active ingredients, one or more flavourings, one or more aerosol-former materials, and/or one or more other functional materials. An active substance as used herein may be a physiologically active material, which is a material intended to achieve or enhance a physiological response. The active substance may for example be selected from nutraceuticals, nootropic agents and psychoactive agents. The active substance may be naturally occurring or synthetically obtained. The active may include, for example, nicotine, caffeine, taurine, caffeine, vitamins (such as B6 or B12 or C), melatonin, cannabinoids, or components, derivatives, or combinations thereof. The active substance may comprise one or more components, derivatives or extracts of tobacco, hemp or other plants. As used herein, the terms "flavoring" and "flavoring" refer to materials that can be used to create a desired taste, aroma, or other somatosensory in a product for an adult consumer, as permitted by local regulations. They may include naturally occurring flavor materials, plants, plant extracts, synthetically obtained materials, or combinations thereof. The aerosol former material may comprise one or more components capable of forming an aerosol. In some embodiments, the aerosol former material may include one or more of glycerol, propylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, 1, 3-butanediol, erythritol, meso-erythritol, ethyl vanillic acid, ethyl laurate, diethyl suberate, triethyl citrate, triacetin, a mixture of diacetin, benzyl benzoate, benzyl phenyl acetate, glycerol tributyrate, lauryl acetate, lauric acid, myristic acid, and propylene carbonate. The one or more other functional materials may include one or more of pH adjusters, colorants, preservatives, binders, fillers, stabilizers, and/or antioxidants.

Fig. 9 is a highly schematic, simplified illustration (not to scale) of an exemplary electronic aerosol/vapor supply system 110, presented to illustrate the relationship between various parts of a common system and to explain the general principles of operation. It should be noted that the present disclosure is not limited to systems configured in this manner, and features may be modified in accordance with various alternatives and limitations described above and/or apparent to the skilled artisan.

In this example, the aerosol provision system 110 has a generally elongate shape extending along a longitudinal axis indicated by a dashed line and comprises two main components, namely an aerosol provision device 120 (control or power component, section or unit), and an article or consumable 130 (cartridge assembly or segment, sometimes referred to as a nebulizer, transparent nebulizer or pod) carrying aerosol generating material and operable for generating a vapor/aerosol. In the following description, the aerosol supply system 110 is configured to generate an aerosol from a liquid aerosol-generating material (source liquid), and the foregoing disclosure will use this example to explain the principles of the present disclosure. However, the present disclosure is not limited to aerosolizing a liquid aerosol-generating material, and features may be modified according to various alternatives and limitations described above and/or apparent to the skilled artisan to aerosolize a different aerosol-generating material (e.g., a solid aerosol-generating material or a gel aerosol-generating material as described above).

The article 130 comprises a reservoir 103 (as an example of an aerosol-generating material storage area) for containing a source liquid from which an aerosol is generated, the source liquid comprising, for example, nicotine. As an example, the source liquid may include about 1% to 3% nicotine and 50% glycerin, with the remainder including approximately equal amounts of water and propylene glycol, and possibly other ingredients, such as flavoring agents. Nicotine-free source liquids such as those used to deliver flavoring may also be used. In some embodiments, a solid substrate (not shown) may also be included, such as a portion of a tobacco or other flavor imparting element through which vapor generated from the source liquid passes. The reservoir 103 may be in the form of a storage tank, which is a container or receptacle that may store the source liquid such that the liquid is free to move and flow within the confines of the tank. In other examples, the storage region may include an absorbent material (inside a canister or the like, or within an outer housing of the article) that substantially retains the aerosol-generating material. For consumable articles, the reservoir 103 may be sealed after filling during manufacture so that it may be discarded after the source liquid is depleted. However, the present disclosure is directed to a refillable article having an inlet port, orifice or other opening (not shown in fig. 9) through which new source liquid may be added to enable reuse of the article 130.

The article 130 further comprises an aerosol generator 105, which may be in the form of an electrically powered heating element or heater 104 and an aerosol-generating material transport component 106 designed to transport aerosol-generating material from an aerosol-generating material storage region to the aerosol generator. The heater 104 is located outside the reservoir 103 and is operable to generate an aerosol by vaporising a source liquid by heating. The aerosol-generating material delivery component 106 is a delivery or delivery device configured to deliver aerosol-generating material from the reservoir 103 to the heater 104. In some examples, the aerosol-generating material delivery component may have the form of a wick or other porous element. One or more portions of the wick 106 may be located inside the reservoir 103 or otherwise in fluid communication with the liquid in the reservoir 103 so as to be able to absorb the source liquid and transport it by wicking or capillary action to other portions of the wick 106 adjacent to or in contact with the heater 104. The wicking member may be made of any suitable material that allows for wicking of the liquid, such as fiberglass or cotton fibers. This wicked liquid is thereby heated and vaporized, and replacement liquid is drawn from the reservoir 103 via continuous capillary action for delivery to the heater 104 through the wick 106. The wick 106 may be considered a conduit between the reservoir 103 and the heater 104 that conveys or transports liquid from the reservoir to the heater. In some embodiments, the heater 104 and aerosol-generating material delivery component 106 are unitary or integral and formed from the same material that can be used for both liquid delivery and heating, such as a porous and electrically conductive material. In other cases, the aerosol-generating material delivery component 106 may operate by means other than capillary action, such as by a device comprising one or more valves through which liquid may leave the reservoir 103 and pass onto the heater 104.

The heater and wick (or the like) combination (referred to herein as an aerosol generator 105) may sometimes be referred to as a nebulizer or nebulizer assembly, and the reservoir with the source liquid plus the nebulizer may be collectively referred to as an aerosol source. A variety of designs are possible in which the parts can be arranged in different ways compared to the highly schematic representation of fig. 9. For example, as mentioned above, the wicking member 106 may be a completely separate element from the heater 104, or the heater 104 may be configured to be porous and capable of directly performing at least a portion of the wicking function (e.g., a metal mesh).

In this example, the system is an electronic system, and the heater 104 may include one or more electrical heating elements that operate by ohmic/resistive (joule) heating. The article 130 may include electrical contacts (not shown) at the interface of the article 130 that electrically engage electrical contacts (not shown) at the interface of the aerosol provision device 120. Electrical energy may be transferred from the aerosol provision device 120 to the heater 104 via the electrical contacts to cause the heater 104 to heat. In other examples, the heater 104 may be inductively heated, in which case the heater comprises a susceptor in an induction heating device, which may include a suitable drive coil through which an alternating current passes. This type of heater may be configured in accordance with examples and embodiments described in more detail below.

Thus, in general, an aerosol generator in the present context may be considered as one or more elements that fulfil the function of an aerosol generating element and a liquid transporting or delivering element, the aerosol generating element being capable of generating a vapour by heating a source liquid (or other aerosol generating material) delivered to the aerosol generating element, the liquid transporting or delivering element being capable of delivering or transporting liquid from a reservoir or similar liquid container to the vapour generating element by wicking/capillary action or other means. As shown in fig. 9, the aerosol generator is typically housed in an article 130 of the aerosol-generating system, but in some examples at least the heater portion may be housed in the device 120. Embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable to all and any such configurations consistent with the examples and descriptions herein.

Returning to fig. 9, the article 130 further includes a mouthpiece or mouthpiece portion 135 having an opening or air outlet through which a user may inhale the aerosol generated by the heater 104.

The aerosol provision device 120 comprises a power source such as a battery cell or battery 107 (hereinafter referred to as a battery, and which may be rechargeable or non-rechargeable) to provide power to the electrical components of the aerosol provision system 110, in particular for operating the heater 104. In addition, there is a control circuit 108, such as a printed circuit board and/or other electronic devices or circuits, for generally controlling the aerosol supply system 110. The control circuit 108 may include a processor programmed with software that may be modified by a user of the system. In one aspect, the control circuit 108 uses power from the battery 107 to operate the heater 104 when vapor is desired. At this point, the user inhales on the system 110 via the mouthpiece 135, and air a enters through one or more air inlets 109 in the wall of the device 120 (which may alternatively or additionally be located in the article 130). When the heater 104 is operated, it evaporates the source liquid delivered from the reservoir 103 by the aerosol-generating material delivery component 106 to generate an aerosol by entraining the vapor into the air flowing through the system, which aerosol is then inhaled by the user through the opening in the mouthpiece 135. When a user inhales on the mouthpiece 135, aerosol is carried from the aerosol generator 105 to the mouthpiece 135 along one or more air channels (not shown) that connect the air inlet 109 to the aerosol generator 105 and to the air outlet.

More generally, the control circuitry 108 is suitably configured/programmed to control operation of the aerosol supply system 110 to provide conventional operating functions of the aerosol supply system consistent with established techniques for controlling such devices, as well as any particular functions described as part of the foregoing disclosure. The control circuitry 108 may be considered to logically include various sub-units/circuit elements associated with different aspects of operation of the aerosol provision system and other conventional operational aspects of the aerosol provision system in accordance with the principles described herein, such as display drive circuitry for the system, which may include a user display (such as a screen or indicator) and a user input detection via one or more user-actuatable controls 112. It will be appreciated that the functionality of the control circuit 108 may be provided in a variety of different ways, for example using one or more suitably programmed programmable computers and/or one or more suitably configured application specific integrated circuits/circuitry/chips/chipsets configured to provide the desired functionality.

The device 120 and the article 130 are separate connectable parts that are disconnected from each other by separation in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis, as indicated by the double headed arrow in fig. 9. When the system 110 is in use, the components 120, 130 are joined together by mating engagement elements 121, 131 (e.g., screws or bayonet fittings), which provide a mechanical connection, and in some cases an electrical connection, between the device 120 and the article 130. If the heater 104 is operated by ohmic heating, an electrical connection is required so that when the heater 104 is connected to the battery 105, an electrical current can flow through the heater. In systems using induction heating, electrical connections may be omitted if there are no parts in the article 130 that require electrical power. An induction work coil/drive coil may be housed in the device 120 and powered by the power source 105, the article 130 and the device 120 being shaped such that when they are connected, the heater 104 is properly exposed to the magnetic flux generated by the coil to generate an electrical current in the material of the heater. The design of fig. 9 is merely an example arrangement, and various parts and features may be distributed between the device 120 and the article 130 in different ways, and may include other components and elements. The two sections may be connected together end-to-end in a longitudinal configuration as shown in fig. 9, or in a different configuration (such as a parallel, side-by-side arrangement). The system may or may not be generally cylindrical and/or have a generally longitudinal shape. Either or both of these portions or components may be intended to be discarded and replaced when depleted, or intended for multiple uses through actions such as refilling the reservoir and recharging the power supply. In other examples, the system 110 may be monolithic in that portions of the device 120 and portions of the article 130 are included in a single housing and cannot be separated. Embodiments and examples of the present disclosure may be applicable to any of these configurations and other configurations as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art.

The present disclosure relates to refilling a storage area for aerosol generating material in an aerosol supply system, whereby a user can conveniently provide new aerosol generating material to the system when a previously stored quantity has been exhausted. It is proposed that this is done automatically by providing a device referred to herein as a refill device, refill unit, refill station or simply a dock. The refill device is configured to receive an aerosol supply system or, more conveniently, an article from the aerosol supply system having an empty or only partially filled storage area, and a larger reservoir holding aerosol generating material. A fluid communication flow path is established between the larger reservoir and the storage region, and a controller in the refill device controls a transport mechanism (or device) operable for moving aerosol-generating material from the larger reservoir in the refill device to the storage region along the flow path. The transmission mechanism may be enabled in response to a refill request entered by a user into the refill device, or automatically enabled in response to a particular state or condition of the refill device detected by the controller. For example, with both the article and the larger reservoir properly positioned within the refill unit, refilling may be performed. After the storage region is replenished with a desired amount of aerosol-generating material (e.g., the storage region is filled or a user-specified amount of material has been transferred to the article), the transfer mechanism is deactivated and the transfer is ended. Alternatively, the delivery mechanism may be configured to automatically dispense a fixed amount of aerosol-generating material, such as a fixed amount that matches the capacity of the storage region, in response to activation of the controller.

Fig. 10 shows a highly schematic representation of an exemplary refill device. The refill device is shown in simplified form only to illustrate the individual elements and their relationship to each other. More specific features of one or more elements involved in the present disclosure will be described in more detail below.

For convenience, the refill device 150 will be referred to hereinafter as a "dock". The term is applicable because the reservoir and the article are received or "docked" in the refill device during use. Dock 150 includes an outer housing 152. The dock 150 is contemplated to be useful for refilling an article in the home or workplace (rather than a portable device or commercial device, although these options are not precluded). Thus, an outer housing, such as made of metal, plastic or glass, may be designed to have a pleasing appearance, so that it is suitable for permanent and convenient access, such as on a shelf, table, counter or counter top. The dock may have any size suitable for housing the various elements described herein, such as having a size between about 10cm and 20cm, although smaller or larger sizes may be preferred. Two cavities or ports 154, 156 are defined within the housing 150.

The first port 154 is shaped and sized to receive and engage the refill reservoir 140. The first port or refill reservoir port 154 is configured to enable an interface between the refill reservoir 140 and the dock 150 and may therefore alternatively be referred to as a refill reservoir interface. Mainly, the refill reservoir interface is used to move aerosol generating material out of the refill reservoir 140, but as described below, in some cases the interface may enable additional functions such as electrical contact and sensing capabilities for communicating between the refill reservoir 140 and the dock 150 and determining characteristics and features of the refill reservoir 140.

The refill reservoir 140 comprises a wall or housing 141 defining a storage space for holding an aerosol generating material 142. The volume of the storage space is large enough to accommodate many or several times the storage area/reservoir 103 of the article 130 to be refilled in the dock 150. Thus, a user may purchase a reservoir 140 filled with their preferred aerosol-generating material (taste, concentration, brand, etc.), and use the reservoir to refill the article 130 multiple times. A user may obtain several reservoirs 140 with different aerosol generating materials to have a convenient choice in refilling the article. The refill reservoir 140 includes an outlet orifice or opening 144 through which the aerosol-generating material 142 may be expelled from the refill reservoir 140.

The second port 156 is shaped and sized to receive and engage the article 130. The second port or article port 156 is configured to enable engagement between the article 130 and the dock 150 and may therefore alternatively be referred to as an article interface. Mainly, the article interface is used to receive aerosol-generating material into the article 130, but in some cases the interface may enable additional functions, such as electrical contact and sensing capabilities for communication between the article 130 and the dock 150, as well as determining characteristics and features of the reservoir 130.

The article 130 itself comprises a wall or housing 131 having a storage area 103 within the wall or housing (but possibly not occupying all of the space within the wall 131) for holding aerosol-generating material. The volume of the storage area 103 is many or several times smaller than the volume of the refill reservoir 140 so that multiple refills of the article 130 can be made by a single refill reservoir 140. The article 130 further comprises an inlet aperture or opening 132 through which the aerosol-generating material may enter the storage region 103. As discussed above with respect to fig. 9, the article 130 may include various other elements.

The housing also houses a fluid conduit 158, which is a channel or flow path placing the storage region 103 of the article 130 in fluid communication with the reservoir 140, such that when both the refill reservoir 140 and the article 130 are properly positioned in the dock 150, aerosol generating material can be moved from the refill reservoir 140 to the article 130. The refill reservoir 140 and article 130 are placed into the dock 150 with them positioned and engaged such that the fluid conduit 158 is connected between the outlet aperture 144 of the reservoir 140 and the inlet aperture 132 of the article 130. Note that in some examples, all or part of fluid conduit 158 may be formed by portions of refill reservoir 140 and article 130 such that the fluid conduit is only created and defined when refill reservoir 140 and/or article 130 is placed in dock 150. In other cases, the fluid conduit 158 may be a flow path defined within the housing 152 of the dock 150 with a respective aperture engaged to each end thereof.

The reservoir port 154 and the product port 156 may be accessed by any convenient means. An aperture may be provided in the housing 152 of the dock 150 through which the refill reservoir 140 and the article 130 may be placed or pushed. The refill reservoir 140 and/or the article 130 may be fully received within the respective aperture or may be partially received within the respective aperture such that a portion of the refill reservoir 140 and/or the article 130 protrudes from the respective port 154, 156. In some cases, a door or the like may be included to cover the aperture to prevent dust or other contaminants from entering the aperture. When the refill reservoir 140 and/or article 130 is fully received in the ports 154, 165, the door or the like may need to be placed in a closed state to allow for refilling. The door, hatch, and other hinged cover, or sliding access element (such as a drawer or tray) may include a shaped rail, slot, or recess to receive and retain the refill reservoir 140 or article 130, which when the door or the like is closed, properly aligns the refill reservoir 140 or article 130 inside the housing 152. Alternatively, the housing of the dock 150 may be shaped to include a recessed portion into which the article 130 or refill reservoir 140 may be inserted. These and other alternatives will be apparent to those skilled in the art and do not affect the scope of the disclosure.

The dock 150 also includes an aerosol-generating material delivery mechanism, means or device 153 operable to move or cause fluid to move out of the refill reservoir 140, along the conduit 158 into the article 130. A variety of options are contemplated for the transfer mechanism 153, but as an example, the transfer mechanism 153 may include a fluid pump, such as a peristaltic pump.

Also included in the dock 150 is a controller 155 operable for controlling components of the dock 150, in particular for generating and transmitting control signals to operate the transmission mechanism 153. As described above, this may be in response to user input, such as actuation of a button or switch (not shown) on the housing 152, or automatically in response to both the refill reservoir 140 and the article 130 being detected as being present within their respective ports 154, 156. The controller 155 may thus communicate with contacts and/or sensors (not shown) at the ports 154, 156 to obtain data from the ports and/or refill reservoir 140 and the article 130, which may be used to generate control signals to operate the transmission mechanism 153. The controller 155 may comprise a microcontroller, microprocessor, or any preferred circuit, hardware, firmware, or software configuration; various options will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Finally, the dock 150 includes a power supply 157 to provide power to the controller 153 and any other electrical components that may be included in the dock, such as sensors, user inputs (such as switches, buttons, or touch panels), and display elements (such as light emitting diodes) and/or a display screen (if present) to convey information to the user regarding the operation and status of the dock. In addition, the transmission mechanism may be electrically powered. Since the dock 150 may be permanently located in a house or office, the power supply 157 may include a socket for connecting a mains power cable to the dock 150 so that the dock 150 may be "plugged in" to mains power. Any suitable electrical converter may be provided on the power cable or within the dock 150 to convert mains electricity to a suitable operating power supply for the dock 150. Alternatively, the power supply 157 may comprise one or more batteries, which may be replaceable or rechargeable, and in the event that the batteries are rechargeable, the dock 150 may further comprise a socket connection for a charging cable adapted to recharge the one or more batteries when received in the dock.

Further details regarding the control of refill will now be described. As described above, the fluid conduit may be formed entirely or partially by the reservoir 140 and portions of the article 130. In particular, an exemplary means of fluid conduit 158 is a nozzle through which fluid aerosol-generating material is dispensed from refill reservoir 140. The nozzle may be provided as an element of the dock 150 such that when the refill reservoir 140 is installed in the dock, the outlet aperture of the refill reservoir 140 is coupled to the first end of the nozzle. Alternatively, the nozzle may be implemented as an integral part of the refill reservoir 140 to provide the outlet orifice. This associates the nozzle with only a specific reservoir and its contents, thereby avoiding any cross-contamination that may occur with reservoirs of different aerosol-generating materials being treated with the same nozzle. The nozzle engages into the inlet orifice of the article 130 to enable fluid to be transferred from the reservoir into the article. Engagement may be achieved by movement of the article towards the refill reservoir, for example when both are already installed in the dock, and vice versa.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic representation of an article arranged to be refilled by a reservoir, wherein both the reservoir and the article are received in a suitable interface in a refill dock (not shown). The refill reservoir 140 containing the active liquid 142 has a nozzle 160 arranged as its outlet orifice, a first or proximal end 161 of the nozzle 160 being adjacent the refill reservoir 140. The nozzle may be integrally formed with the refill reservoir 140 by molding or 3D printing, such as a plastic material. This ensures a leak-free engagement between the nozzle 160 and the housing 141 of the refill reservoir 140. Alternatively, the two portions may be formed separately and then joined together, such as by welding, adhesive, screw or push-fit coupling, or other methods. The nozzle 160 has a tubular elongate shape and extends from a first end 161 to a second or distal end 162 remote from the refill reservoir 140, which serves as a fluid dispensing point. Fluid is held in the reservoir by a valve (not shown), such as at or near proximal end 161, which opens when delivery of fluid to article 130 begins. In other cases, the surface tension may be sufficient to hold the fluid, such as where the orifice of the nozzle 160 is small enough. The distal end 162 is inserted into or otherwise engages the inlet aperture 132 of the article 130, and in this example, extends directly into the storage region 103 of the article 130. In other examples, there may be tubing, piping, or some other fluid flow path connecting the inlet aperture 132 to the interior of the storage region 103. In use, the source liquid 142 exits the refill reservoir 140 with the fluid transfer mechanism 153 of the dock 150, moves along a fluid channel defined by the nozzle 160 (serving as a fluid conduit) from a proximal end 161 to a distal end 162 where the source liquid reaches the fluid outlet of the nozzle and flows into the storage region 103 for refilling the article 130 with liquid aerosol generating material.

Fig. 11 shows only an exemplary arrangement, and the outlet orifice of the refill reservoir may be configured in other forms than a nozzle, and as described above, the fluid conduit that allows for refilling of the article using the refill dock may or may not include portions of the reservoir and article. However, typically, the inlet aperture of the article is configured to engage with the fluid conduit such that fluid from the reservoir may be expelled from the fluid conduit and into the storage region of the article. Engagement with the fluid conduit may be achieved by relative movement between the end of the fluid conduit (such as the distal end of the nozzle) and the article after insertion of the article into the article port of the refill dock.

Thus, the refill device/dock 150 is configured to supply aerosol generating material (source liquid 142) from the refill reservoir 140 to the reservoir 103 of the article 130 to refill or replenish the reservoir 103 of the article 130. As described above, the refill process is managed by the controller 155 of the refill device 150 and includes generating and sending control signals to the transport mechanism 153 to cause the transport mechanism to begin moving aerosol-generating material (source liquid) from the refill reservoir 140 into the article 130. The dock/refill device may include a mechanism (thus generally denoted as an aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit) configured to detect an amount of aerosol-generating material (source liquid) within the article. The refill device/dock 150 uses the detected amount of aerosol-generating material (source liquid) within the article 130 to refill the article 130 accordingly.

However, to prevent overfilling or underfilling of the article 130, it is desirable to accurately refill the article 130, which may increase the pressure in the reservoir/storage area, thereby increasing the likelihood of leakage and spillage, while underfilling results in the article emptying again more quickly, thereby requiring more frequent refill actions, thereby resulting in a poor user experience. Thus, according to the present disclosure, the refill device is configured to accurately refill the article by obtaining a reference value (or values) from the article, wherein the reference value is used in the process to accurately determine the amount of aerosol-generating material in the article, and subsequently control the refill process accordingly.

Fig. 12 schematically illustrates a portion of dock 150 centered about product port 156. The dock 150 in fig. 12 is based on the dock shown in fig. 10, wherein like parts are designated with like reference numerals. Some components are omitted for clarity.

Fig. 12 shows the article 130 positioned in the article port 156, and in this implementation, the article 130 is fully contained in the article port 156. The article 130 is positioned such that when the article 130 is received in the article port 156, the reservoir 103 is also fully received in the article port 156. As previously described, the article 130 is docked in such a way that aerosol-generating material can be transferred to the article 130, for example, through the inlet aperture 132 as described above.

The dock 150 includes an aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit configured to sense an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article 130. In fig. 12, the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit comprises a pair of capacitor plates 159 located on either side of the article port 156. Thus, when the article 130 is positioned within the article port 156, the article 130 is positioned between the pair of capacitor plates 159. In this regard, the capacitance measured between two capacitor plates is in part a function of the material (otherwise known as dielectric) between the capacitor plates. More specifically, the capacitance C of a pair of parallel capacitor plates may be expressed mathematically as c=epsilon (a/d), where a is the overlap area of the plates of the capacitor, d is the distance between the capacitor plates, and epsilon is the dielectric constant of the dielectric between the capacitor plates. As the material changes between the capacitor plates 159 of the article port 156, such as with the amount of source liquid in the reservoir 103 of the article 103, the measured capacitance also changes. When the reservoir 103 is free of aerosol generating material, there is a capacitance value of the capacitor plate 159 which depends in part on the dielectric value epsilon of the air occupying the empty reservoir 103. When the reservoir is filled with aerosol-generating material, the space between the capacitor plates 159 is occupied by aerosol-generating material having a different dielectric constant than air. Thus, the capacitance measured by the capacitor plate is different for a full storage area and an empty storage area, and in fact any amount of aerosol-generating material between the empty and full storage areas is different. Assuming that the overlap area a of the capacitor plates 159 and the distance d between the capacitor plates 159 do not change for a given dock 150, the capacitance measured between the capacitor plates 159 is used as an indication of the amount of aerosol-generating material/source liquid within the article 130.

As shown in fig. 12, the capacitor plate 159 is coupled to the controller 155 via appropriate wiring. The controller 155 is configured such that an oscillating voltage is applied across the pair of capacitor plates 159, which produces a current through the capacitor plates, which in turn can be detected by the controller 155 in an appropriate and known manner. The controller 155 may accordingly determine an indication of the amount of aerosol-generating material within the article 130 from the corresponding measurement, such as by using an appropriate look-up table or calibration curve to convert the corresponding measurement into an indication of the amount of aerosol-generating material.

In fig. 12, the capacitor plates 159 are shown to extend approximately the height of the reservoir 103 such that the entire height of the reservoir 103 is between the capacitor plates 159 when the article 130 is engaged with the article port 156. However, in other implementations, the capacitor plate 159 may extend to a different height, for example, less than the height of the reservoir 103. However, ensuring that the capacitor plates extend at least the height of the reservoir 103 enables the dock 150 to determine when the article 130 is empty and/or full. In other implementations, multiple pairs of capacitor plates may be provided in the dock 150, whereby each pair of capacitor plates is located at a different height along the height of the product port 156. In such an implementation, each pair of capacitors may be used as a level detector, transitioning from a capacitance value when air is present between the pair of capacitor plates to a capacitance value when source liquid is present between the capacitor plates. Other arrangements of capacitor plates are also contemplated within the principles of the present disclosure.

In accordance with the principles of the present disclosure, dock 150 (or more specifically controller 155 thereof) is configured to receive a reference value from article 130. The reference value is a value indicative of a characteristic of the article 130 associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit. More specifically, the reference value is indicative of a value specific to a given article 130, and that value may be used by the controller 155 to calibrate/adjust/modify the output from the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit to provide a more accurate reading of the amount of aerosol-generating material within the article 130.

In the example of fig. 12, the reference value includes or is a capacitance value associated with the article 130. As described above, when the capacitor plates 159 are used as the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit, the measured capacitance depends in part on the dielectric constant epsilon between the capacitor plates. When no article 130 is present in the article port 156, then the dielectric constant ε between the capacitor plates is the dielectric constant of air. However, when the article 130 is placed between the capacitor plates 159 (or in other words, the article 130 is located in the article port 156), the dielectric constant ε is some combination of the dielectric constants of the various materials now located between the capacitor plates 159, which may include the material forming the housing 131 and/or the inlet aperture 132 of the article and the material or materials (which may be some mixture of air and source liquid) held in the reservoir 103 of the article. The actual dielectric constant epsilon may be considered as a weighted average of the dielectric constants of the various materials located between the capacitor plates 159, the weighting being based on the relative amounts of those materials.

Thus, different articles 130 (excluding the contents of the reservoir 103) may have different capacitance values when measured by the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuitry of the dock 150 based on, for example, manufacturing tolerances, variations in the purity/composition of the material used for the housing 131 of the article, any manufacturing imperfections, and the like. Thus, two seemingly identical articles 130 may actually produce quite different capacitance values when measured using the capacitor plates 159 (not including the contents of the reservoirs 103) of a given dock 150.

Thus, in accordance with the present disclosure, the controller 155 receives a reference value from the article 130 that is indicative of the capacitance associated with the article 130 as measured under standard (or more consistent) conditions, wherein the reference value is obtained in advance. For example, during manufacture of the article 130, the article 130 may be placed in a test rig, which may include a pair of capacitor plates similar to the capacitor plate 159. The test rig may apply a fixed oscillating voltage (i.e., a voltage oscillating between two fixed values) to the capacitor plates of the test rig and measure the resulting capacitance value. The article 130 may be empty (i.e., completely free of any aerosol-generating material) or a predetermined amount of aerosol-generating material (e.g., 2ml of source liquid) may be placed inside the article before the measurement is obtained. The measured capacitance value or a value indicative of the measured capacitance (such as the derived dielectric constant) is recorded and provided to the article 130 as a reference value. When the article 130 is coupled to the dock 150, the controller 155 receives a reference value from the article 130 and uses the reference value to compensate or correct a measured capacitance value obtained using the capacitor plate 159 of the dock.

For example mathematically, the measured capacitance C _m obtained by the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit may be expressed as the capacitance C _a of the article plus the capacitance C _agm of the aerosol-generating material (or more precisely, the capacitance of the aerosol-generating material and air in the reservoir 103); that is to say,

C_m＝C_a+C_agm

Assuming that in one example, the reference value is a pre-obtained measured capacitance of the empty article 130 (e.g., using test equipment during manufacture of the article 130), the controller 155 is configured to subtract the reference value C _a from the measured capacitance value C _m to obtain an indication of a component of the measured capacitance due to the presence of aerosol-generating material in the reservoir 103. More generally, the reference value is used to modify a default mapping (e.g., C _m＝C_agm) between the measured capacitance of any article and the amount of aerosol-generating material in any article based on a value specific to the article 130 (e.g., C _a).

In this example, the reference value C _a considers an empty reservoir 103 such that when no aerosol-generating material is present in the reservoir 103, the measured capacitance value C _m is equal to the reference capacitance value C _a. The above equations are merely examples to illustrate the principles of the present disclosure, and the manner in which controller 155 corrects the measured capacitance may differ from that shown, depending on the conditions in which the capacitance of article 130 is obtained during manufacture.

Fig. 13 is a line graph indicating a plot of capacitance (in arbitrary units, y-axis) measured by the capacitor plate 159 of the dock 150 versus the amount of source liquid (in arbitrary units, x-axis) contained in the reservoir 103 of the article 130. The curve is shown only as an example of the relationship between measured capacitance and the amount of source liquid and should not be considered as representing a specific example, but is provided to demonstrate aspects of the present disclosure.

In fig. 13, the capacitance is shown as the amount of source material in the article 130 changes from an initial value C _E where the article is empty (i.e., the reservoir does not contain any source liquid) to a final value C _F where the article 130 is full (i.e., the reservoir contains a maximum allowable amount of source liquid). In this regard, it should be understood that the "full" state of the article 130 does not necessarily refer to the reservoir 103 being completely filled with the source liquid, but may also include instances where a predetermined amount of source liquid (such as 2 ml) is present within the reservoir 103 of the article. Fig. 13 shows an approximately linear relationship between the measured capacitance value and the amount of source liquid in the reservoir, whereby the capacitance increases with increasing amount of source liquid. Thus, assuming an empty product is coupled to the dock 150, the capacitance measured by the capacitor plate 159 of the dock 150 will increase as the source liquid in the reservoir 103 increases as the dock 150 refills the product 130.

Fig. 14 is a line graph similar to fig. 13, but showing curves of two capacitances, one starting from an initial value C _E1 and one starting from an initial value C _E2. These curves are labeled "actual" and "default" and are intended to highlight the principles of the present disclosure. The "default" curve shows the change in capacitance starting from an initial value C _E2 representing an "empty" article 130 and increasing with the amount of source liquid. The "default" curve may be considered to represent the relationship between the measured capacitance and the amount of source liquid in the article 130 in the absence of a reference value described in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure. In other words, the dock 150 configured to determine the amount of source liquid in the article 130 simply by measuring the capacitance of the capacitor plate 159 in the presence of the article 130 may employ a relationship as shown by the curve labeled "default". Dock 150 may be programmed to use this "default" relationship without any further input. Conversely, a curve labeled "actual" may be considered to represent an actual (or accurate) relationship between the measured capacitance and the amount of source liquid in the article 130. In this example, both curves follow the same linear relationship.

Fig. 14 shows a measured capacitance value C _{Measurement of}, which represents an exemplary capacitance value that may be obtained by the capacitor plate 159 of the dock 150, for example, in response to the article 130 being coupled to the article port 156 of the dock 150. As shown in fig. 14, the measured capacitance value C _{Measurement of} is located on both the "default" and "actual" curves of capacitance, shown by points a ₁ and a ₂. These two points a ₁ and a ₂ represent different amounts of source liquid in the reservoir 103 of the article 130. Where the dock 150 is configured to determine the amount of source liquid in the reservoir 103 of the article 130 using the relationship shown by the "default" curve, then as is clear from fig. 14, the actual amount of source liquid contained in the reservoir will be underestimated because the amount a ₂ is less than the amount a ₁.

Thus, to more accurately determine the amount of source liquid contained in the article 130, the article 130 provides a reference value to the controller 155 indicative of a characteristic associated with the capacitance of the article 130. For example, the reference value may be a value C _E1, which when acquired by the controller 155, the controller may determine the actual relationship (i.e., a curve labeled "actual") for determining the amount of source liquid in the reservoir 103 by using the value C _E1 as an initial value for a fixed known linear relationship, or alternatively, the reference value may be a difference between a "default" curve and an "actual" curve (i.e., C _E2-C_E1), allowing the controller 155 to add or subtract the difference to or from the measured capacitance to provide an adjusted measured capacitance. Moreover, the controller 155 can modify a default mapping between the measured capacitance of any article and the amount of aerosol-generating material in any article using the received reference value to provide a modified mapping that more closely approximates the actual relationship between the measured capacitance in the actual article 130 and the amount of aerosol-generating material.

As shown in fig. 14, providing the dock 150 with the controller 155 may enable more accurate refilling of the article 130. For example, if the controller 155 is configured to determine the amount of aerosol-generating material to be delivered in order to bring the reservoir 103 of the article to a full state, the controller 155 can accurately calculate this amount of aerosol-generating material based on the modified mapping. Fig. 14 shows that for the "default" curve, the amount of source liquid required to fill reservoir 103 is Δsl ₂ based on measured capacitance C _{Measurement of}. In contrast, for the "actual" curve, based on the measured capacitance C _{Measurement of}, the amount of source liquid required to fill the reservoir 103 is Δsl ₁, which is much smaller than the amount Δsl ₂, as can be seen. Thus, if the controller 155 is configured to cause the transfer mechanism 153 to transfer the amount of source liquid required to fill the reservoir 103 and to stop the transfer mechanism 153 after the amount of source liquid is transferred, the controller 155 will cause the article 130 to overfill without using the reference value, as described in the present disclosure, because the amount Δsl ₂ is greater than the actually required amount Δsl ₁. Alternatively, if the controller 155 is configured to determine a capacitance value indicative of the article being full (i.e., an expected capacitance value indicative of the article 130 being full when sensed by the capacitor plate 159 of the dock 150), the controller 155 can accurately calculate this amount of aerosol-generating material based on the reference value. Fig. 14 shows that for the "default" curve, based on the measured capacitance C _{Measurement of}, the expected capacitance value that indicates a full reservoir 103 is C _F2. In contrast, for the "actual" curve, based on the measured capacitance C _{Measurement of}, the expected capacitance value for the indicated full reservoir 103 is C _F1, which is much smaller than the ratio C _F2, as can be seen. Thus, if the controller 155 is configured to cause the transfer mechanism 153 to cease delivering source liquid after the determined capacitance value is reached/sensed, then if the controller 155 is not to use a reference value as described in this disclosure, the controller will cause the article 130 to overfill because the capacitance value C _F2 is not reached (if even the capacitance value C _F2 can be reached) until the reservoir is deemed to be full.

Thus, based on the obtained reference value, the controller 155 can utilize the modified map to more accurately determine the amount of aerosol-generating material present in the article 130, thereby accounting for variations between the articles 130 that might otherwise affect the measurement of the amount of aerosol-generating material in the article 130. Thus, the controller 155 can more accurately control the refill process, helping to avoid overfilling or underfilling of the article 130.

In the above example, the relationship between capacitance and the amount of source liquid in the reservoir of article 130 is based on a fixed linear relationship, which may follow the known formula y=mx+c, where m is the gradient of a straight line and c is a constant corresponding to the intersection of the straight line on the y-axis of the line graph. Assuming that the gradient m of the line is fixed and known to the controller 155, knowing a single reference point on the line is sufficient to enable the controller 155 to infer any point on the line. In other words, if the gradient m is known and does not vary between articles 130, and C corresponds to the initial "empty" capacitance of the articles (e.g., C _E1 of fig. 14), then for any measured capacitance C _MEASURED (which would employ the y parameter in the equation above), controller 155 can calculate the amount of source liquid in articles 130 by solving the x parameter in the equation above. Thus, in such an implementation, a single value of the reference value is sufficient to enable the controller 155 to accurately calculate the amount of aerosol-generating material in the article 130. The linear gradient m may be programmed into the controller 155 or may also be provided by the article 130 when it is coupled to the dock 150.

However, in some implementations, multiple reference values may be required in order for the controller 155 to be able to accurately calculate the amount of source liquid. In these implementations, not only is the reference value transmitted to the article 130, but an indication of the amount of source liquid in the article to which the reference value corresponds is also transmitted. For example, the reference value may be an initial capacitance value C _E, which represents the capacitance value of the article 130 when the article 130 is empty, and a final capacitance value C _F, which represents the capacitance value of the article 130 when the article 130 is full.

Fig. 15 is a line graph showing capacitance versus amount of source liquid in the article in a similar manner to fig. 14. In fig. 15, a graph of two capacitances is shown, one starting from an initial value C _E1 and one starting from an initial value C _E2. These two curves are shown as straight lines with different gradients (i.e. different values of m). The gradient of the line connecting C _E1 and capacitance value C _F1 (which represents the capacitance measured when the first article 130 is full) is steeper than the gradient of the line connecting C _E2 and capacitance value C _F2 (which represents the capacitance measured when the second article 130 is full). In this scenario, to identify which line the measured capacitance value corresponds to, controller 155 obtains at least two reference values, such as C _E1 and C _F1, from article 130. This allows the controller 155 to effectively calculate or derive a gradient of a straight line corresponding to the article 130 engaged with the dock 150, thereby allowing the controller 155 to correctly identify the source liquid amount in the article 130 from the capacitance value measured by the capacitor plate 159.

Conversely, in other implementations, the reference value may include an indication of a parameter to be used in an equation for determining a relationship between the measured capacitance and the amount of aerosol-generating material. For example, returning to the example above, whereby the linear relationship comprises an unknown gradient m and an unknown intercept c, the reference values may include the values m and c and be obtained by the controller 155 from the article 130. In this manner, the controller 155 can obtain values of parameters of the relationship corresponding to the particular article 130, thereby providing a modified mapping of measured capacitance to aerosol-generating material amount using the reference values.

It should be understood that the relationship between the capacitance sensed by the capacitor plate 159 and the amount of source liquid contained in the reservoir 103 of the article 130 shown in fig. 13-15 is provided as an example of a relationship to highlight aspects of the present disclosure. In some implementations, the relationship may take different forms, for example, a curve, such as a parabolic curve (which may follow the equation y=ax ² +bx+c). In these implementations, the controller 155 may obtain a plurality of reference values indicative of the measured capacitance of the article 130 at different fill levels (i.e., with different amounts of source liquid therein), wherein the number of reference values is sufficient for the controller 155 to establish a relationship between the capacitance and the amount of source liquid, for example, by extrapolating between the reference values, or to obtain values indicative of the parameters a, b, and c. Thus, when a plurality of reference values are provided to the controller 155, the controller 155 is configured to determine a relationship between the measured capacitance and the amount of source liquid.

Thus, in broad terms, the controller 155 of the dock 150 is configured to utilize one or more reference values to calculate or establish an actual relationship between the measured capacitance and the amount of source liquid contained in the reservoir 103 of the article 130 by modifying a default mapping between the measured capacitance of any article and the amount of aerosol-generating material in any article. Or the controller 155 is preprogrammed with this relationship and additional data (such as a reference value) is required to adjust the relationship with the particular article 130 being measured, or the relationship may be derived from additional data (such as a reference value) provided by the article 130 to the dock 150.

Returning to fig. 12, fig. 12 shows an article 130 provided with a data-containing element 130a configured to store one or more reference values for the article 130. The data-containing element 130a of the article 130 may be any suitable data-containing element 130a that is at least readable by an associated data reader 156a disposed in the dock 150.

The data-containing element 130a may be an electronically readable memory (such as a microchip or the like) containing a reference value for the article 130, such as in the form of an electronically readable digital/binary code. The electronically readable memory may be any suitable form of memory, such as an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), although other types of suitable memory may be used depending on the application at hand. In this implementation, the electronically readable memory is non-volatile in that the article 130 is not continuously coupled to a power source (e.g., power source 153 located in dock 150 or power source 107 located in device 120). However, in other implementations, the electronically readable memory may be volatile or semi-volatile, in which case the article 130 may need to have its own power source, which may result in increased costs and increased waste of material when the article 130 is discarded (e.g., when the article 130 is depleted).

The data-containing element 130a may be electronically read by coupling electrical contacts (not shown) on the article 130 with electrical contacts (not shown) in the article port 156. That is, when the article 130 is positioned in the article port 156, an electrical connection is made between the article 130 and the reader 156a in the article port 156. Applying a current from the reader 156a to the data containing element 130a enables the reader 156a to obtain a reference value from the data containing element 130a of the article 130. Alternatively, any suitable wireless technology (such as RFID or NFC) may be used to electronically read the data-containing element 130a, and the article 130 may be provided with suitable hardware (such as an antenna) to enable such reading by a suitable wireless reader 156 a. The reader 156a is coupled to the controller 155 and thus the reader is configured to provide the obtained reference value to the controller 155 of the dock 150.

It should be understood that the data containing element 130a may be based on other types of suitable data storage mechanisms, and in principle, any element capable of containing data in a format that may be obtained/read by a suitable reader may be employed in accordance with the present disclosure. For example, the data-containing element 130a may comprise an optically readable element that contains a reference value (such as a bar code or two-dimensional code), and the reader 156a may comprise a suitable optical reader (such as a camera). In this example, data-containing element 130a contains reference values (e.g., arranged bars or pixels) in the form of images. In another example, the data-containing element 130a may comprise a magnetically readable element (such as a magnetic tag or magnetic stripe) that stores a reference value, and the reader 156a may comprise a suitable magnetic reader (such as a magnetic read head).

It should be appreciated that the type of data-containing element 130a is not critical to the principles of the present disclosure, and thus any suitable data-containing element capable of containing or storing a reference value indicative of a characteristic of an article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit may be used. Furthermore, while the above provides data containing element 130a that can be read by an associated reader 156a, it should be understood that other ways of storing and transmitting reference values to controller 155 can be employed in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure. For example, the article 130 may be configured to mechanically engage with the dock 150 in a particular manner such that the engagement represents a reference value to the dock 150.

Fig. 16 is a flowchart indicating an exemplary method for operating the transport mechanism 153 of the dock 150 based at least in part on a reference value received from the article 130.

The method starts at step S101, where the article 130 is coupled to the dock 150 in step S101. The article 130 may be coupled to the dock 150 as described above. It is assumed that the refill reservoir 140 is also coupled to the dock 150 before, simultaneously with, or after step S101.

In step S102, the controller 155 is configured to read a reference value from the article 130. As described above, the article 130 includes a data-containing element 130a that can be read by an associated reader 156a located in the dock 150 such that the controller 155 can obtain a reference value from the dock 150 using the reader 156 a. As described above, any particular technique for storing and communicating the reference value to the controller 155 may be employed.

It should be appreciated that in some implementations, refilling of the article 130 may begin automatically after the article 130 and refill reservoir 140 are properly docked in the dock 150. Thus, before the method may proceed to step S102, the controller 155 may be configured to check for the presence of the refill reservoir 140 (and possibly the amount of liquid in the refill reservoir), and proceed to step S102 only when both the article 130 and the refill reservoir 140 are docked. In alternative implementations, refill may be controlled in response to user input (i.e., a user requesting to begin delivering source liquid using delivery mechanism 153). In these implementations, the controller 155 waits to receive user input before proceeding to step S102 (and possibly also checks to see if the article 430 and refill reservoir 140 are docked before allowing the method to proceed to step S102).

After step S102, the method may proceed to either (or both) of steps S103 and S107.

Referring first to step S103, in step S103, the controller 155 is configured to cause the capacitor plate 159 (or more broadly, the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit) to read a reading (or more specifically, a capacitance measurement) indicative of the amount of source liquid contained in the reservoir 103 of the article 130.

In step S104, the controller 155 is configured to calculate the amount of source liquid to be transferred to the reservoir 103 using at least the capacitance measurement result obtained in step S103 and the reference value obtained in step S102. For reference, this is the amount Δsl shown in fig. 14. As described above, the controller 155 may have a preprogrammed relationship linking the capacitance to the amount of source liquid in the reservoir 103, or the relationship may be derived from one or more reference values obtained, or the relationship may be obtained from the article 130 itself (e.g., from the data containing element 130 a). After establishing this relationship, the controller 155 is configured to accurately determine the amount of source liquid in the reservoir 103 using the capacitance measurement of step S103. Thereafter, the controller is configured to calculate an amount of source liquid to be transferred to the reservoir 103 to fill the reservoir 103. This is done by calculating the difference between the calculated amount of liquid representing that the reservoir is full and the calculated amount of source liquid in the reservoir. The controller 155 may be configured to operate to a default fill volume (e.g., 2ml of source liquid), or the controller 155 may obtain information about the size of the reservoir 103 (e.g., from the article 130 itself, such as from the data-containing element 130 a).

In step S105, the controller 155 causes the transfer mechanism 153 to transfer the calculated amount of the source liquid for filling the reservoir 103. The controller 155 and/or the delivery mechanism 153 may be configured to monitor the amount of source liquid delivered by the delivery mechanism 153 (e.g., by determining the amount of material delivered using a flow meter located in the fluid conduit 158). Alternatively, the controller 155 may set an operating parameter of the fluid transfer mechanism 153 to transfer a determined amount of source liquid (e.g., by setting the duration of time that the transfer mechanism 153 is on).

In step S106, after the transfer mechanism 153 transfers a certain amount of the source liquid to the reservoir 103, the controller 155 causes the transfer mechanism to end transferring the source liquid. The controller 155 may also cause a notification to be provided to the user to notify the user that the refill has been completed.

Returning to step S103, the method may alternatively or additionally proceed to step S107. In step S107, based on the reference value obtained in step S102, the controller 155 is configured to calculate a full value, in this case a capacitance value that when measured by the capacitor plate 159 indicates that the article 130 is full of source liquid. More generally, the full value is a value that, when measured by the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit, indicates that the article 130 is full of aerosol-generating material. As discussed with respect to step S104, the controller 155 may have a preprogrammed relationship linking the capacitance to the amount of source liquid in the reservoir 103, or the relationship may be derived from one or more reference values obtained, or the relationship may be obtained from the article 130 itself (e.g., from the data containing element 130 a). In step S107, the controller 155 is configured to calculate a full value using the established relationship, the calculation being based on establishing a capacitance value for the reservoir having a source liquid amount meeting a predetermined filling criterion (as described above, this may be a default filling amount (e.g. 2ml of source liquid) or information about the size of the reservoir 103 obtained, for example, from the article 130 itself (such as from the data containing element 130 a).

In step S108, the controller 155 is configured such that the transfer mechanism transfers the source liquid from the refill reservoir 140 to the article 130 according to the techniques described above. In step S109, the controller 155 is configured to monitor the capacitance measurements obtained by the capacitor plate 159 and determine whether the measured capacitance value is equal to the calculated full value (the capacitance value indicating that the reservoir 103 is full of source liquid according to a predetermined fill criterion). If the measured capacitance value is not equal to the full value (or more precisely, less than the full value), i.e., "no" in step S109, the method returns to step S108 and the transfer mechanism 153 is operated to continue transferring the source liquid to the article 30. Conversely, if the measured capacitance value is equal to the full value (or more precisely, greater than or equal to the full value), i.e., yes in step S109, the method proceeds to step S110, where the controller 155 causes the transfer mechanism to end transferring the source liquid. The controller 155 may also cause a notification to be provided to the user to notify the user that the refill has been completed.

As mentioned, the method may be performed according to steps S103 to S106 and/or according to steps S107 to S110. If the controller 155 is configured to operate according to both S103-S106 and S107-S110, in some implementations, whichever criteria is met first (i.e., whether the amount of source liquid required to fill the reservoir is transferred or whether the capacitor plate 159 is measuring a full value) is used to cause the transfer mechanism 153 to cease transferring source liquid to the reservoir 103. Alternatively, the controller 155 may be configured to stop the flow of the source liquid after two criteria are met.

Fig. 17a and 17b each represent a modification of the method shown in fig. 16, which may be applied separately or together to the method in fig. 16. Fig. 17a comprises an additional method step S111a of providing information to step S107, while fig. 17b shows an additional method step S111b of providing information to step S104. Method steps S111a and S111b provide information to the controller 155 indicative of the type of source liquid contained in the reservoir 103 of the article 130. For example, information indicative of the source liquid type may be contained in the data-containing element 130a of the article 130. The information indicating the type of source liquid relates in particular to information that may have an effect on the capacitance measurements performed by the capacitor plate 159. For example, nicotine may be provided in both unprotonated and protonated forms, wherein the protonated nicotine comprises a nicotine salt (formed by adding a proton donor to the source liquid). The presence of nicotine salts may result in different capacitance measurements being obtained by the capacitor plate 159, at least because salts typically have different electrical properties.

Accordingly, the controller 155 may be configured to obtain an indication of the source liquid type and use this indication to help determine the relationship between the capacitance and the amount of source liquid for a given article 130. Providing this information may enable the controller 155 to more accurately calculate the amount of aerosol-generating material within the article 130. As discussed above, in some implementations, the article 130 may provide the controller 155 with a relationship between capacitance and the amount of source liquid in the reservoir 103, and in these implementations, the indication of the source liquid type may be effectively encoded in the provided relationship.

Although it has been described above that the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit is formed by one or more pairs of capacitor plates 159 and associated capacitance measurement circuits of the controller 155, the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit may also comprise any suitable sensing circuit capable of sensing the amount of aerosol-generating material within the article 130. For example, the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit may include a weighing mechanism, such as a scale, configured to sense the weight of the article 130, the sensed weight of the article being interpreted by the controller 155 to represent the amount of aerosol-generating material within the article 130. Any suitable mechanism may be used in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure.

Likewise, while the reference value is described as a capacitance value, the reference value may also represent any suitable characteristic of an article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit. For example, in the above example, the reference value may include a weight value. Thus, the reference value is a characteristic associated with a particular type of aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit and will be appropriately identified by the skilled person.

Furthermore, for the avoidance of doubt, as described above, the principles of the present disclosure may be applied to any type of aerosol-generating material (e.g. solid, liquid, gel, gas, etc.) and any correspondingly suitable delivery mechanism adapted to deliver the aerosol-generating material to the article 130.

It should be understood that the methods shown in fig. 16, 17a and 17b are provided to explain certain features applicable to the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that combinations of features disclosed in the respective methods are allowed within the scope of the present disclosure.

Further, while it has been generally described that the default mapping implemented by the controller 155 is based on an equation (defining a relationship between the amount of capacitance of any article and the amount of aerosol-generating material in any article), it should be appreciated that the relationship may be recorded/stored in other ways. For example, the controller 155 may include a look-up table storing values of measured capacitance and fill level for the product. The lookup table may include default information (e.g., default values of measured capacitance and fill level) that is modified as a result of receiving the reference value. For example, the reference value may suggest the same adjustment (e.g., subtraction amount) for each value in the lookup table or provide a parameter that may be used to adjust an equation for the value of the lookup table, or may provide multiple reference values to provide different adjustments for the value within the table or provide multiple parameters for the equation. Thus, in principle, the mapping between the measured capacitance of any article and the amount of aerosol-generating material in any article may take any suitable form.

Furthermore, the methods described in fig. 16, 17a and 17b illustrate relevant features in the context of the present disclosure. The method may be modified to include additional steps not directly related to the present disclosure. For example, the article 130 may include information related to the lifetime of the source liquid contained within the article 130. In some implementations, the information may be manufacturing data, date of sale, lot number, and the like. The controller 155 may obtain source liquid life information from the article 130, and in the event that the source liquid life information indicates that the source liquid has expired (e.g., the date of manufacture differs from the current date by more than a threshold amount), the controller 155 may be configured to prevent refilling of the article 130 by the refill reservoir 140. The source liquid life information may be stored in the data containing element 130 a.

Likewise, the article 130 may include identifying information related to the identity of the article 130. In some implementations, the identification information can be a unique identifier, lot number, etc. that uniquely identifies the article 130. The controller 155 may obtain the identification information from the article 130, and in the event that the identification information indicates that the article 130 is unsuitable for use (e.g., because the unique identifier indicates that the article 130 is not authentic), the controller 155 may be configured to prevent refilling of the article 130 by the refill reservoir 140. The identification information may be stored in the data containing element 130 a.

While the refill device/dock 150 has been described above as being configured to transfer source liquid from the refill reservoir 140 to the article 130, as discussed, other implementations may use other aerosol generating materials (such as solids, e.g., tobacco). The principles of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other types of aerosol-generating materials, and for such implementations, the skilled person may employ appropriate refill reservoirs 140 and articles 130 for storing/retaining aerosol-generating materials, and appropriate transport mechanisms 153, respectively.

Additionally, while it has been described above that the capacitance of the article is measured and the reference value includes an indication of the capacitance of the article, it should be understood that other parameters may be used. Thus, more generally, the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit may sense an indication of a characteristic of the article, which may include measuring capacitance and other characteristics that may be used to determine the amount of aerosol-generating material in the article, such as the weight of the article.

Accordingly, there has been described a refill device for refilling an article for use with an aerosol-generating material with an aerosol-supplying device, the refill device comprising: a delivery mechanism configured to deliver the aerosol-generating material to the article; an aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device; and a controller configured to: receiving a reference value from the article, the reference value being indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit; modifying a default mapping between a measured indication of a characteristic of the arbitrary article and an amount of aerosol-generating material in the arbitrary article using at least the received reference value; and controlling a refill mechanism to supply an amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified map. An article, system, and method are also described.

The various embodiments described herein are only used to assist in understanding and teaching the claimed features. These embodiments are provided as representative examples of embodiments only, and are not exhaustive and/or exclusive. It is to be understood that the advantages, embodiments, examples, functions, features, structures and/or other aspects described herein should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention as defined by the claims or the equivalents of the claims, and that other embodiments may be used and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the claimed invention. In addition to the elements, components, features, portions, steps, means, etc. specifically described herein, various embodiments of the present invention may suitably comprise, consist of, or consist essentially of the appropriate combinations of the elements, components, features, portions, steps, means, etc. disclosed. Furthermore, the present disclosure may include other inventions not presently claimed but which may be claimed in the future.

Claims

1. An article for an aerosol provision system, comprising:

A storage area for aerosol-generating material;

An inlet orifice in fluid communication with the interior of the storage region through which aerosol-generating material can be added into the storage region;

A first capacitive sensor comprising a first pair of capacitor plates arranged to measure the capacitance of the storage region;

a second capacitive sensor comprising a second pair of capacitor plates arranged to measure the capacitance of the storage region; and

Electrical contacts through which capacitance measurements measured by the first and second capacitance sensors can be determined separately outside the article.

2. The article of claim 1, wherein the first pair of capacitor plates has a larger area than the second pair of capacitor plates.

3. An article according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first pair of capacitor plates has a first sensor size in a direction of increasing fluid level when aerosol-generating material is added to the storage region, the second pair of capacitor plates has a second sensor size in a direction of increasing fluid level, and the first sensor size is larger than the second sensor size.

4. An article according to claim 3, wherein the first sensor dimension extends from a zero fluid level corresponding to the storage region being free of aerosol-generating material to a maximum fluid level corresponding to the storage region containing its full volume of aerosol-generating material.

5. An article according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the second sensor dimension extends from a zero fluid level corresponding to the storage region being free of aerosol-generating material to a partial fluid level corresponding to the storage region containing less than its full capacity of aerosol-generating material.

6. The article of claim 5, wherein the second sensor size is no greater than 20% of the first sensor size.

7. The article of any of claims 3-6, wherein the first pair of capacitor plates has a first sensor width perpendicular to a direction of fluid level increase, the second pair of capacitor plates has a second sensor width perpendicular to a direction of fluid level increase, and the first sensor width and the second sensor width are substantially equal.

8. An article according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the capacitor plate of the first capacitive sensor or the capacitor plate of the second capacitive sensor comprises a heating element in the article configured to vaporise aerosol-generating material from the storage region.

9. An aerosol provision system comprising an article according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. A refill device for refilling an article from a reservoir, comprising:

A reservoir interface for receiving a reservoir containing an aerosol-generating material and having an outlet aperture;

an article interface for receiving an article of an aerosol-supply system, the article having a storage region for aerosol-generating material such that a fluid flow path is formed between the outlet orifice of the reservoir and the storage region of the article, the article being in accordance with any one of claims 1 to 8;

a transport mechanism operable for moving aerosol-generating material from the received reservoir to the storage region of the received article; and

A controller configured to operate the transport mechanism, and further configured to:

Acquiring a first capacitance measurement result measured by the first capacitance sensor and a second capacitance measurement result measured by the second capacitance sensor while the transmission mechanism is operating;

Processing the first and second capacitance measurements to determine when aerosol-generating material contained in the storage region of the article reaches a predetermined capacity of the storage region; and

In response, the operation of the transmission mechanism is ended.

11. The refill device of claim 10, wherein the predetermined capacity of the storage area is a maximum capacity of the storage area.

12. The refill device of claim 10 or 11, wherein the controller is configured to process the first and second capacitance measurements by: applying a correction derived from the second capacitance measurement to the first capacitance measurement and monitoring the corrected first capacitance measurement to identify when a value corresponding to the predetermined capacity of the storage area is reached.

13. The refill device of claim 12, wherein the controller is configured to derive a temperature value of the aerosol-generating material in the storage region from the second capacitance measurement and to correct the first capacitance measurement in dependence on the derived temperature value.

14. The refill device of any one of claims 10 to 13, wherein the refill device is configured to ground the other of the first and second capacitive sensors when capacitance measurements are obtained from each of the first and second capacitive sensors.

15. A refill device according to any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein the controller is configured to apply a non-linear relationship between the first capacitance measurement and a level of aerosol-generating material in the storage region upon determining that the storage region contains the predetermined volume of aerosol-generating material.

16. The refill device of claim 15 wherein the non-linear relationship accounts for variations in the cross-sectional configuration of the storage region and the cross-sectional configuration of the first pair of capacitor plates in a direction in which fluid levels increase when aerosol-generating material is added to the storage region.

17. An apparatus for refilling an article of an aerosol supply system, the apparatus comprising an aerosol supply system comprising an article of any of claims 1 to 8 and a refill device according to any of claims 10 to 16.

18. A method of refilling an article from a reservoir, comprising:

Obtaining a first capacitance measurement of a storage region of the article from a first capacitance sensor and a second capacitance measurement of the storage region from a second capacitance sensor as aerosol-generating material moves from the reservoir into the storage region;

Processing the first and second capacitance measurements to determine when the aerosol-generating material contained by the storage region reaches a predetermined capacity of the storage region; and

Upon determining that the predetermined capacity is reached, movement of aerosol-generating material into the storage region is stopped.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the predetermined capacity of the storage area is a maximum capacity of the storage area.

20. A method according to claim 18 or 19, wherein the first capacitive sensor comprises a first pair of capacitor plates having a first sensor dimension in a direction of increasing fluid level when moving aerosol-generating material into the storage region, the second capacitive sensor comprises a second pair of capacitor plates having a second sensor dimension in a direction of increasing fluid level, and the first sensor dimension is larger than the second sensor dimension.

21. A method according to claim 20, wherein the first sensor dimension extends from a zero fluid level corresponding to the storage region being free of aerosol-generating material to a maximum fluid level corresponding to the storage region containing its full capacity of aerosol-generating material, and the second sensor dimension extends from a zero fluid level corresponding to the storage region being free of aerosol-generating material to a partial fluid level corresponding to the storage region containing less than its full capacity of aerosol-generating material.

22. The method of any of claims 18 to 21, wherein processing the first and second capacitance measurements comprises: applying a correction derived from the second capacitance measurement to the first capacitance measurement and monitoring the corrected first capacitance measurement to identify when a value corresponding to the predetermined capacity of the storage area is reached.

23. The method of claim 22, comprising the steps of: a temperature value of the aerosol-generating material in the storage region is derived from the second capacitance measurement, and the first capacitance measurement is corrected in dependence on the derived temperature value.

24. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 23, comprising the steps of: upon determining that the aerosol-generating material reaches the predetermined capacity of the storage region, a non-linear relationship is applied between the first capacitance measurement and a level of aerosol-generating material in the storage region.

25. A method according to claim 24, wherein the non-linear relationship accounts for variations in the cross-sectional configuration of the storage region and the cross-sectional configuration of the first pair of capacitor plates in the direction in which the fluid level increases when aerosol-generating material is added to the storage region.

26. A refill device for refilling an article for use with an aerosol-generating material with an aerosol-supplying device, the refill device comprising:

A delivery mechanism configured to deliver aerosol-generating material to the article;

An aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device; and

A controller configured to:

Receiving a reference value from the article, the reference value being indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit;

Modifying a default mapping between a measured indication of a characteristic of the arbitrary article and an amount of aerosol-generating material in the arbitrary article using at least the received reference value; and

The refill device is controlled to supply an amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified mapping.

27. The refill device of claim 26, wherein the reference value indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit is predetermined.

28. A refill device according to any one of claims 26 to 27, wherein the reference value indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit comprises a single value, and the controller of the refill device is configured to control the refill mechanism to supply an amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based in part on the single reference value obtained from the article for providing a modified map.

29. A refill device according to claim 28, wherein the reference value is indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit when the article contains a predetermined amount of aerosol-generating material.

30. The refill device of claim 29, wherein the reference value is indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit when the article is free of aerosol-generating material.

31. A refill device according to any one of claims 26 to 27, wherein the reference value indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit comprises a plurality of values, and the controller of the refill device is configured to control the refill mechanism to supply an amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based in part on a plurality of reference values obtained from the article for providing a modified map.

32. A refill device according to claim 31, wherein the plurality of values are each indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit when the article contains a predetermined amount of aerosol-generating material.

33. The refill device of claim 32, wherein the plurality of values comprises an indication of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit when the article is free of aerosol-generating material.

34. The refill device of claim 31, wherein the plurality of values each indicate a parameter of an equation defining a relationship between the characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit and an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article.

35. A refill device according to any one of claims 26 to 34, wherein the controller is configured to calculate the amount of aerosol-generating material to be transferred to the article based on the output of the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit and the reference value received from the article for providing a modified map.

36. A refill device according to claim 35, wherein the controller is configured such that the amount of aerosol-generating material calculated by the controller is transmitted using the transmission mechanism and such that the transmission of aerosol-generating material is ended after the calculated amount of aerosol-generating material has been transmitted.

37. A refill device according to any one of claims 26 to 36, wherein the controller is configured to calculate a value indicative of the article being filled with aerosol generating material to be sensed by the aerosol generating material amount sensing circuit based on the reference value received from the article for providing a modified map.

38. The refill device of claim 37, wherein the controller is configured to terminate delivery of aerosol-generating material to the article when the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit outputs the calculated value.

39. A refill device according to any one of claims 26 to 38, wherein the aerosol generating material amount sensing circuit comprises at least one pair of capacitor plates configured to provide a capacitance value to the controller.

40. The refill device of claim 39, wherein the at least one pair of capacitor plates are located on either side of an article port configured to receive the article such that the article is located between the capacitor plates when the article is engaged with the article port of the refill device.

41. The refill device of any one of claims 39 and 40, wherein the reference value is a capacitance value obtained in advance by measuring the capacitance of the article under predetermined conditions using at least one pair of capacitor plates located on either side of the article.

42. The refill device of any one of claims 26 to 41, wherein the article comprises a data containing element that contains the reference value, and wherein the refill device comprises a reader configured to read the reference value from the data containing element.

43. An article for use with an aerosol-supplying device, the article configured to store aerosol-generating material and to be refilled with aerosol-generating material by a refill device, the refill device comprising: a delivery mechanism configured to deliver aerosol-generating material to the article; and an aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device, the article comprising:

a reference value indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit,

Wherein the refill mechanism is configured to receive the reference value from the article and modify a default mapping between a measured indication of a characteristic of any article and an amount of aerosol-generating material in any article using at least the received reference value, and control the refill mechanism to supply the amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified mapping.

44. A system for refilling an article with an aerosol-generating material, the system comprising:

the refill device of any one of claims 26 to 42; and

The article of claim 43.

45. A method for operating a refill device for refilling an article for use with an aerosol-generating material with an aerosol-supplying device, the refill device comprising: a delivery mechanism configured to deliver aerosol-generating material to the article; and an aerosol-generating material amount sensing circuit configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device, the method comprising:

46. A refill device for refilling an article for use with an aerosol-generating material with an aerosol-supplying device, the refill device comprising:

a delivery device configured to deliver aerosol-generating material to the article;

An aerosol-generating material amount sensing device configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device; and

A controller device configured to:

Receiving a reference value from the article, the reference value being indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing device;

47. An article for use with an aerosol-supplying device, the article configured to store aerosol-generating material and to be refilled with aerosol-generating material by a refill device, the refill device comprising: a delivery device configured to deliver aerosol-generating material to the article; and an aerosol-generating material amount sensing device configured to determine an amount of aerosol-generating material within the article when the article is engaged with the refill device, the article comprising:

a reference value indicative of a characteristic of the article associated with the aerosol-generating material amount sensing device,

Wherein the refill device is configured to receive the reference value from the article and modify a default mapping between a measurement indication of a characteristic of any article and an amount of aerosol-generating material in any article using at least the received reference value, and control the refill device to supply the amount of aerosol-generating material to the article based on the modified mapping.