Adaptive signal architecture for initiating and testing state transitions in an aerosol generation device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12245639-B2
Application number	US-202117490731-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2021
Priority date	Sep 30, 2021
Publication date	Mar 11, 2025
Grant date	Mar 11, 2025

Abstract

A test fixture for testing aerosol provision devices includes a housing, a plurality of testing modules disposed at the housing where each of the testing modules includes a cavity configured to receive a portion of an aerosol provision device, and processing circuitry operably coupled to the testing modules. Each of the testing modules is configured to interface with an assembly of a respective one of the aerosol provision devices to transition the assembly between an initial state and a transitioned state during a functional test controlled by the processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to conduct the functional test of at least two of the testing modules simultaneously.

First claim

That which is claimed:

1. A test fixture for testing aerosol provision devices, the test fixture comprising:
one or more testing modules including a cavity configured to receive at least a portion of an aerosol provision device; and
processing circuitry operably coupled to the one or more testing modules,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to provide a transition signal to the aerosol provision device to transition the aerosol provision device between an initial state and a transitioned state during a functional test controlled by the processing circuitry,
wherein the transition signal has a message format comprising a plurality of fields including a data portion, and a length indicator, and
wherein the length indicator indicates an anticipated length of the transition signal based on providing information on contents of one or more other fields of the message format.

2. The test fixture of claim 1 , wherein the length indicator includes a segment defining a level or type of encryption of the data portion.

3. The test fixture of claim 2 , wherein the level of encryption is a selected one of either no encryption, 32-bit encryption, 64-bit encryption, 128-bit encryption and 256-bit encryption.

4. The test fixture of claim 2 , wherein the type of encryption is determined from a lookup table correlating different types of encryption to respective different segment values of the length indicator.

5. The test fixture of claim 1 , wherein the length indicator includes a segment defining whether a device identifier corresponding to the aerosol provision device is included in a device portion of the message format.

6. The test fixture of claim 5 , wherein the device identifier is associated with a batch of unique identifiers of respective individual instances of the aerosol provision devices.

7. The test fixture of claim 1 , wherein the length indicator includes a segment defining whether key identification information is included in a key portion of the message format.

8. The test fixture of claim 1 , wherein the length indicator includes a first segment defining a level of encryption of the data portion, a second segment defining whether a device identifier corresponding to the aerosol provision device is included in a device portion of the message format, and a third segment defining whether key identification information is included in a key portion of the message format.

9. The test fixture of claim 8 , wherein the length indicator indicates the anticipated length of the transition signal based on an accumulation of respective lengths indicated by the first, second and third segments.

10. The test fixture of claim 1 , wherein the length indicator indicates the anticipated length of the transition signal based on an accumulation of an indication of contents of the data portion relating to encryption, and of contents of a device/key field including information associated with a device identifier and information relating to key identification information.

11. The test fixture of claim 10 , wherein the device/key field is disposed between a first data portion of the data portion and a second data portion of the data portion.

12. The test fixture of claim 11 , wherein contents of the data portion are split between most significant bits and least significant bits, and
wherein the most significant bits are disposed in the first data portion and the least significant bits are disposed in the second data portion.

13. The test fixture of claim 10 , wherein the data portion includes a unique unlock code determined based on a unique identifier of the aerosol provision device.

14. The test fixture of claim 13 , wherein the key identification information identifies a selected key among a plurality of keys stored in the power unit.

15. The test fixture of claim 14 , wherein the selected key is used to decrypt the unique unlock code.

Assignees

• Rai Strategic Holdings Inc

Inventors

• Daugherty Sean

Classifications

• A24F40/80

  Testing · CPC title

• H04L9/3239

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title

• H01M50/247

  specially adapted for portable devices, e.g. mobile phones, computers, hand tools or pacemakers · CPC title

• H01M50/202

  Casings or frames around the primary casing of a single cell or a single battery · CPC title

• G06F21/44

  Program or device authentication · CPC title