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An electronic cigarette with a thermal flow sensor based controller is provided which comprises a housing; a battery, a controller assembly; an air inlet for allowing air to enter into the housing, a mouthpiece; a fluid reservoir; an atomizer; at least a light emitting diode; and a display. The ther

An electronic cigarette with a thermal flow sensor based controller is provided which comprises a housing; a battery, a controller assembly; an air inlet for allowing air to enter into the housing, a mouthpiece; a fluid reservoir; an atomizer; at least a light emitting diode; and a display. The thermal flow sensor is fabricated using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technologies which is amenable to create the electronic cigarette with a thermal flow sensor based controller having stable evaporated liquid delivering, immediately response to smoker inhalation, like normal cigarette inhalation resistance, low power consumption, and no accidental actuation take place.

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1. An electronic cigarette with a thermal flow sensor based controller comprising: a housing; a battery; a controller assembly consisting of a thermal flow sensor and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which is disposed in the housing and connected with the battery and the thermal flo

1. An electronic cigarette with a thermal flow sensor based controller comprising: a housing; a battery; a controller assembly consisting of a thermal flow sensor and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which is disposed in the housing and connected with the battery and the thermal flow sensor electrically; an air inlet for allowing air to enter into the housing; a mouthpiece for allowing user to suck on the housing; a fluid reservoir; an atomizer and a coil heater, wherein the coil heater is arranged on at least a portion of outer surface of the atomizer; at least a light emitting diode; and a display, wherein the thermal flow sensor includes: two parallel resistive heaters and two thermopiles, wherein the thermopiles dispose on two opposite sides of the resistive heaters respectively, wherein each of the thermopiles includes a plurality of thermocouples wherein orientation of the thermocouples is substantially perpendicular to orientation of the resistive heater, and the thermopiles and the resistive heaters lie on a stack layer consisting of a porous silicon layer and an empty gap, which are recessed in a silicon substrate and provide local thermal isolation from the silicon substrate, and the cold contacts of the thermopiles lie on the bulk portion of the silicon substrate. 2. The electronic cigarette of claim 1, wherein the two parallel resistive heaters of the thermal flow sensor can be driven by a series of modulated voltage pulses. 3. The electronic cigarette of claim 2, further comprising modulated voltage pulses generated by a voltage-controlled pulse width modulator (PWM). 4. The electronic cigarette of claim 2, further comprising modulated voltage pulses generated by a switched resistor digital-to-analog converter (DAC). 5. The electronic cigarette of claim 1, wherein the thermal flow sensors are configured to operate in pulse heating mode, in which a width of heating pulses is approximately 5 milliseconds (ms) so that power consumption of the thermal flow sensor is in the range of 0.01 to 10 milliwatts (mw) in which the low power consumption is utilized during a sleep mode and higher power consumption is activated in normal working mode. 6. The electronic cigarette of claim 1, wherein the thermal flow sensor has a high dynamic range and can measure an air flow rate from 0.01 to 100 liter per minute. 7. The electronic cigarette of claim 1, wherein the thermal flow sensor is installed in the housing and a temperature profile around the resistive heaters is configured to shift to a flow direction which represents temperature change caused by an air flow and detected by the thermopiles of the sensor. 8. The electronic cigarette of claim 7, wherein the air flow rate detection is operated by the thermal flow sensor based controller, in which a response time to a smoker inhalation can be approximately 5 milliseconds (ms). 9. The electronic cigarette of claim 1, wherein the housing is a tube having a diameter less than 15 mm, wherein the thermal flow sensor senses an air flow rate less than 3 standard liters per minute (SLPM) such that the type of the air flow in the tube is limited to be laminar flow. 10. The electronic cigarette of claim 1, wherein the thermal flow sensor is installed in an airway disposed in the housing which provides an air flow caused by a smoker inhalation which imitates a real tobacco cigarette. 11. An electronic cigarette with a thermal flow sensor based controller comprising: a housing; a battery; a controller assembly consisting of a thermal flow sensor and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which is disposed in the housing and connected with the battery and the thermal flow sensor electrically; an air inlet for allowing air to enter into the housing; a mouthpiece for allowing user to suck on the housing; a fluid reservoir; an atomizer and a coil heater, wherein the coil heater is arranged on at least a portion of outer surface of the atomizer; at least a light emitting diode; and a display, wherein the thermal flow sensor includes: two parallel resistive heaters and two thermopiles, wherein the thermopiles dispose on two opposite sides of the resistive heaters respectively, wherein the resistive heaters and hot contacts of the thermopiles are situated on a stack layer consisting of a porous silicon layer and an empty gap, which are recessed in a silicon substrate and provide local thermal isolation. 12. The electronic cigarette of claim 11, wherein the heaters of the thermal flow sensor can be driven respectively by a series of modulated voltage pulses which is modulated by the static (no air flow) output voltage of the thermopiles so that an offset voltage of the thermopiles remains approximately zero. 13. The electronic cigarette of claim 11, wherein the thermal flow sensors are configured to operate in pulse heating mode, in which a width of heating pulses is approximately 5 milliseconds (ms) so that power consumption of the thermal flow sensor is in the range of 0.01 to 10 milliwatts (mw) in which the low power consumption is utilized during a sleep mode and higher power consumption is activated in normal working mode. 14. The electronic cigarette of claim 11, wherein the thermal flow sensor has a high dynamic range and can measure an air flow rate from 0.01 to 100 liter per minute. 15. The electronic cigarette of claim 11, wherein the thermal flow sensor is installed in the housing and a temperature profile around the resistive heaters is configured to shift to a flow direction which represents temperature change caused by an air flow and detected by the thermopiles of the sensor. 16. The electronic cigarette of claim 15, wherein the air flow rate detection is operated by the thermal flow sensor based controller, in which a response time to a smoker inhalation can be approximately 5 milliseconds (ms). 17. An electronic cigarette with a thermal flow sensor based controller comprising: a housing; a battery; a controller assembly consisting of a thermal flow sensor and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which is disposed in the housing and connected with the battery and the thermal flow sensor electrically; an air inlet for allowing air to enter into the housing; a mouthpiece for allowing user to suck on the housing; a fluid reservoir; an atomizer and a coil heater, wherein the coil heater is arranged on at least a portion of outer surface of the atomizer; at least a light emitting diode; and a display, wherein the application-specific integrated circuit or ASIC contains an amplifier, a processor core, an analog-to-digital converter or ADC, a digital-to-analog converter or DAC, memory, an interface to atomizer, an interface to light emitting diodes, interface to display, code input, and a power supply,wherein the ASIC is configured to: receive an output voltage from the battery wherein the output voltage is controlled in accordance with an air flow rate which is produced by a smoker inhalation; determine a heating current that is used to heat the coil heater of the atomizer; and deliver an amount of fluid vapor to the smoker regardless of hard inhalation or weak inhalation and longer inhalation or shorter inhalation. 18. The electronic cigarette of claim 17, wherein the ASIC is configured to: identify mechanical vibration; and suspend heating current that is used to heat the coil heater of the atomizer and suspend delivery of fluid vapor. 19. The electronic cigarette of claim 17, wherein the ASIC is further configured to: receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate; determine a drive current that is used to drive the light emitting diode; and deliver the drive current to the light emitting diodes such that the light emitted by the light emitting diodes can be gradually bright or gradually faded or flashing or intermittent. 20. The electronic cigarette of claim 17, wherein the ASIC is still further configured to: receive the output voltage representing the air flow rate; calculate a duration and an inhaled nicotine amount of each puff and a total inhaled nicotine amount over a period of time; and enable the display to display the duration and the inhaled nicotine amount of each puff and a number of puffs and a total inhaled nicotine amount over a period of time.