Versatile microwave heating apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9769884-B2
Application number	US-201615139629-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 27, 2016
Priority date	Jun 4, 2010
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

A microwave heating apparatus for heating a load by means of microwaves is provided. The microwave heating apparatus comprises a cavity arranged to receive a piece of food to be heated, a first microwave supply system configured to supply microwaves at the cavity bottom for energizing a browning function in the cavity, a second microwave supply system configured to supply microwaves into the cavity for exciting cavity modes and a control unit configured to control the first and second microwave supply systems based on a food category and/or a cooking program. The first supply system comprises at least one microwave source and at least one antenna arranged in a lower part of the cavity and the second microwave supply system comprises at least one microwave source and at least one feeding port arranged in an upper part of the cavity. The present invention is advantageous in that a microwave heating apparatus with an improved crisp function is provided.

First claim

We claim:

1. A microwave heating apparatus comprising:
a cavity arranged to receive a piece of food to be heated;
a first microwave supply system configured to supply microwaves at a cavity bottom for energizing a browning plate in the cavity, wherein the first microwave supply system comprises at least one microwave source and at least one antenna arranged in a lower part of the cavity to energize the browning plate;
a second microwave supply system configured to supply microwaves into the cavity for exciting cavity modes, wherein the second microwave supply system comprises at least one microwave source and at least one feeding port arranged in an upper part of the cavity; and
a control unit configured to individually and separately adjust the respective power levels of the first and second microwave supply systems and allowing either or both the first and second microwave supply systems to be activated based on one of a food category or a cooking program.

2. The microwave heating apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a user interface for selection of the food category or cooking program.

3. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a food category corresponds to a specific type of food or state of food and wherein a cooking program includes at least one of the group comprising defrosting, frying, grilling, baking, roasting, volume heating or upper browning.

4. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the microwave source of either one of the first and second microwave supply systems is at least one of a solid state microwave generator and a magnetron.

5. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a grill element arranged at a wall of the cavity for providing a grill function or top browning.

6. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the control unit is configured to regulate the respective power levels of at least one of the first microwave supply system, the second microwave supply system or the grill element on the basis of a selected cooking program or food category.

7. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the control unit is configured to activate only the first microwave supply system and the grill element if the cooking program is selected to be frying.

8. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 6 , further comprising a sensor configured to detect if the browning plate arranged to receive the piece of food is introduced in the cavity.

9. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the control unit is configured to activate the first microwave supply system if the browning plate is detected.

10. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the first microwave supply system comprises at least two pairs of microwave source and antenna distributed at the cavity bottom.

11. The microwave heating apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising at least one transmission line for feeding the microwaves generated by the microwave source of the second microwave supply system to the feeding port.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Niklasson Olle
• Carlsson Hakan
• Nordh Ulf
• Hallgren Fredrik

Classifications

• H05B6/6447

  Method of operation or details of the microwave heating apparatus related to the use of detectors or sensors · CPC title

• H05B6/6482 Primary

  combined with radiant heating, e.g. infrared heating · CPC title

• H05B6/6494

  for cooking · CPC title

• H05B6/6402

  Aspects relating to the microwave cavity · CPC title

• H05B2206/044

  Microwave heating devices provided with two or more magnetrons or microwave sources of other kind · CPC title