Are E-Cigarettes Safe? Lao Han's 10-Year Journey in Vape Chip Design

Are e-cigarettes safe? Recently, the 315 evening gala once again named and exposed e-cigarettes. The e-cigarette industry is not as simple as it seems; many have been struggling in this industry for years. Since Xiao Han passed the civil service exam at home, life has been quite stable, but behind this stability, Xiao Han has become increasingly uneasy.

"A person who wants to work in electronics has to repeat Excel sheets every day." This was the problem that troubled Xiao Han that year.

That autumn, Xiao Han finally made a decision, bidding farewell to family and colleagues, taking a green train filled with instant noodle smell, and heading alone to Shenzhen. In this largest gathering place for engineers in the country, Xiao Han felt he could do something big.
Xiao Han found a job as a technical engineer in an e-cigarette factory, which was doing very well. The high return rate and safety issues of e-cigarettes were the biggest problems at that time, and surrounding factories were also trying to make technical improvements to solve this issue. Three months later, major clients would visit each factory to select products, and everyone was working hard to secure this big order.

Xiao Han spent a month understanding the product's structure, principles, processes, and manufacturing stages. Combining the fact that most returned products had issues with the atomization device burning out, Xiao Han decided to start analyzing from the atomization device and power supply system.

With his rich experience in hardware system architecture, Xiao Han conducted various experiments in chips, circuits, output, and heating curves. Just before the major client's visit, Xiao Han reduced the defect rate from double digits to single digits, and the factory successfully secured the big order, earning Xiao Han substantial rewards.

Engineers from nearby factories also visited Xiao Han, and he gained some fame; there was a saying in the industry at that time: "A small step for Xiao Han is a giant leap for e-cigarettes."
From then on, Xiao Han became Lao Han.

However, Lao Han was not happy because the technical improvements were not perfect; his goal was zero defects for safety and convenience. But business and dreams are two different things; the boss believed that the product's competitiveness lay in comparison with competitors, not in self-perfection. Now, the demand from clients is strong; they need to provide the best products on the market, not the perfect products.

Lao Han accepted his boss's view; in the face of a pile of foreign exchange, Lao Han's dream of technical improvement was drowned out. The engineers, like Lao Han, were all immersed in the dream of making money quietly, and no one talked about zero defects anymore.

Transitioning to develop heated tobacco e-cigarettes

In 2014, new heated tobacco e-cigarettes represented by IQOS emerged, severely impacting the factory where Lao Han worked. The performance plummeted, and the boss had spent the profits from previous years on real estate and financial products, neglecting technical improvements and new product development, making the factory's situation precarious.

At this time, some nearby factories extended an olive branch to Lao Han, and he joined Factory A to start developing heated tobacco products. The principle of this product is to use a micro-electronic heating device to heat the specially designed tobacco sticks to a temperature sufficient to release flavor and tobacco taste.

Its working temperature is between 250-350 degrees, and the difficulty in product design lies in controlling the output power, output curve, and heating efficiency of the heating device. This returns to the issue of system coordination; the quality of coordination directly affects the user's taste and experience.

As the popularity of heated tobacco products rose, chips were increasingly mentioned in the industry. Lao Han found that universal chips indeed shortened the development cycle and relatively controlled costs in the early stages of new products.

However, during the market rise of the product, the advantages of universal chips became like a double-edged sword, even hindering development. The excess of functional quality and difficulty in controlling power consumption, along with the trend towards high integration and miniaturization, were all restricted by universal chips. If there were dedicated chips, it would bring greater imaginative space for product innovation.

"If there were dedicated chips, it might have a disruptive impact on the industry!" Lao Han occasionally thought about this. In a rapidly developing market, timely delivery of products is the top priority, and Lao Han quietly shelved the idea of dedicated chips, continuing to focus on the important work of generating foreign exchange.

The spotlight on the e-cigarette factory street

In 2018, the e-cigarette brand RUIKE made a dazzling debut in the Chinese market, bringing the first wave of shock with its astonishing growth speed. At the beginning of 2019, new brands like YOOZ and FLOW entered the market, directly pushing the e-cigarette industry into the hottest trend at the start of 2019. The brightest star in this trend was undoubtedly the third-generation e-cigarette—flat cigarettes.

A single stone stirred up a thousand waves; the street of e-cigarette factories in Shenzhen, which had been quietly earning foreign exchange, suddenly found itself in the spotlight, revealing both the blue ocean and the hidden reefs... It is not an exaggeration to describe the e-cigarette practitioners at this time as experiencing a duality of fortune and misfortune.

The office buildings on the street of e-cigarette factories are home to numerous e-cigarette companies.

The bumpy road to SMOK's listing and the huge success of MCV in manufacturing have all had a significant impact on this street, breaking the original balance. Some people are planning to follow the trend and transform, while others are hesitating, fully aware of the dilemma of being surrounded by the city, afraid of being swallowed by the waves if they act rashly.

Lao Han has worked on this street for ten years. His obsession with chip technology has influenced a group of tech enthusiasts on this street. Several partners who have frequently interacted with Lao Han said, "Lao Han, lead us; we will do whatever you say."

Lao Han fell into deep thought; he felt he should simplify his career: the idea of dedicated chips suddenly popped into his mind. Yes, use technology to change the world, return to his genetic origin!

Lao Han remembered when he first came to Shenzhen ten years ago; he firmly believed he could do something with technology... Over the years, he had been led by foreign exchange, lost in the waves of the market, and strayed from his original intention. Lao Han reviewed the changes in products over the years; regardless of how the categories switched, they all revolved around chips and circuits, which is precisely his expertise.
Ten years of accumulation, one day of success

Without hesitation, Lao Han led a few brothers to start working. They summarized and analyzed from several dimensions, including product structure, functions, principles, pain points, and experiences, and jointly formulated a chip planning strategy that first goes vertical and then horizontal. Everyone felt this approach was good.

Some e-cigarette factories fell into difficulties because their products were too singular and did not emphasize technological innovation, lying on the bed of market dividends and unable to rise. When the market underwent significant changes, their fragility became particularly prominent; everyone has experienced such losses to varying degrees.

Industry insiders know that developing safety chips for e-cigarettes is not any simpler than designing e-cigarettes. With lessons learned from the past, under a high degree of consensus, the team's efficiency was surprisingly high. As Lao Han said, "The difference in cognitive dimensions is the barrier to team efficiency."

From a grain of sand to a chip, it takes more than 20 processes. Lao Han's ten-year journey in e-cigarettes, from technical improvements in small vapes to the development of heated tobacco products and the nurturing of dedicated chips, has seen iterations and evolutions in product thinking, user experience, and technical accumulation to chip design. Lao Han and his team are continuously growing.

With industry know-how and the reputation accumulated in the industry, their dedicated chips had loyal potential clients from the start. Within six months of the chip's launch, it was already being applied in some e-cigarette products. Perhaps the e-cigarette you are currently using contains Lao Han's chip.

Now, during breaks, Lao Han also chats with his brothers about the past of e-cigarettes and his chip dream.

To make e-cigarettes safer and more convenient, Lao Han has always believed in achieving the ultimate in dedicated chip design through technology.

Now, Lao Han and his partners have re-entered the industry as chip creators. Lao Han hopes that more engineers and solution providers can come together to build an ecological system for this dedicated market, allowing everyone to find their ecological niche and serve the entire industry with a collaborative professional approach.

Written by: Si Feng & Shy