An induction heating device includes a working coil, an inverter including a first switching element and a second switching element; a gate driver including a first sub-gate driver and a second sub-gate driver; and a protection circuit disposed between the inverter and the gate driver. The protection circuit includes a first resistor disposed between a gate terminal of the first switching element and an output terminal of the first sub-gate driver, a second resistor connected electrically in parallel to the first resistor, a protection circuit resistor disposed between a reference voltage terminal of the first sub-gate driver and a first node between the first switching element and the second switching element, a protection circuit diode disposed between a ground and a second node between the protection circuit resistance and the reference voltage terminal, and a bootstrap circuit disposed between the second node and the external power supply.

A method for operating a drink maker within a vehicle using a single hand, the method comprising: a. providing a stirrer; b. placing a cup on a seating associated with a heating mechanism, said placed cup containing a liquid and an essence, wherein the liquid and the essence are separated by a ring-shaped partition; c. automatically sensing a presence of the placed cup on said seating; d. automatically turning on a heating mechanism for warming said liquid; e. automatically sensing a temperature relating to the temperature of said liquid; f. automatically turning off said heating mechanism upon sensing a first predetermined temperature; g. said partition enabling mixing of said liquid and said essence upon warming to a second predetermined temperature, said second predetermined temperature is lower than said first predetermined temperature; h. inserting said stirrer through the ring when the liquid is at the second predetermined temperature; i. stirring the liquid with said stirrer, and j. removing said placed cup from said seating.

A hob has a hob plate for putting a pan having a remote communication device thereon and multiple heating devices under said hob plate, a hob controller and a main communication device having a transmitter and a receiver for communicating with the pan to measure a distance between itself and the remote communication device. Said main communication device belongs to the hob controller and is designed to use a Bluetooth communication protocol and to receive an individual identifier of the remote communication device and to store the latter in the hob controller. The hob and the main communication device are switched on and a pan having a remote communication device is put onto the hob plate, this being detected. The distance between the main communication device and the remote communication device of the pan is then measured, and the pan position of the pan on the hob is thus determined. This pan position is stored along with the individual identifier of the remote communication device in the hob controller.

A home appliance includes a case having a first seating portion and a second seating portion, a first coil arranged in the first seating portion and configured to generate induced current to the first seating portion, a second coil arranged in the second seating portion and configured to generate induced current to the second seating portion and having a height lower than a height of the first seating portion, a first inverter arranged in the first seating portion and to supply driving current to the first coil to cause the first coil to generate the induced current, and a second inverter arranged in the first seating portion and to supply driving current to the second coil to cause the second coil to generate the induced current.

A method for monitoring the use of cooking a cooking hobs, using an infrared imaging system to detect and classify at least one region of the hob to ascribe a characteristic to said region, to determine relevant criteria relating to that region, and to provide responses appropriate to deviations from those criteria.

Induction cooktops and operational methods are provided herein. A method of determining material composition of cookware on an induction cooktop can include determining that a piece of cookware is on the induction cooktop, inducing a current within the piece of cookware with an induction coil of the induction cooktop, and obtaining a peak induction coil current, a smoothed input line current, and a phase shift of current flowing in the induction coil. The method can further include comparing the peak induction coil current, the smoothed input line current, and the phase shift each to a set of predetermined ranges, and determining candidate material compositions for the cookware based on the comparing of each of the peak induction coil current, the smoothed input line current, and the phase shift.

A power transmitter is provided herein. The power transmitter provides executing a dynamic heating operation with a heating object. The power transmitter senses a metallic structure in a presence of a coil of the power transmitter and transmits waves at one or more frequencies in response to sensing the metallic structure. The power transmitter determines that the metallic structure is the heating object based operation conditions respective to transmitting the waves and executes the dynamic heating operation by providing a power transfer to the heating object.

A household appliance device includes an integer number N of row switching elements at a row position i, wherein i is an integer number 1≤i≤N, an integer number M of column switching elements at a column position j, wherein j is an integer number 1≤j≤M, a heating matrix including at least N×M heating matrix elements having positions (i,j), with N+M>2, wherein a heating matrix element at the position (i,j) includes at least one inductor at the position (i,j) and is connected to both the i-th row switching element and the j-th column switching element. At least one switching diode connects at least one of the row switching elements or at least one of the column switching elements to at least one reference potential.

A cooking vessel sensor and an induction heating device including a cooking vessel sensor is provided. The cooking vessel sensor may include a cylindrical hollow body having a first receiving space defined therein; a hollow cylindrical magnetic core received in the first space and having a second receiving space defined therein; and a sensing coil wound on an outer face of the side wall by a predetermined number of winding counts. The cylindrical hollow body may have a side wall having a coil outlet defined therein, and the sensing coil may pass through the coil outlet out of the body. The cooking vessel sensor may further include a controller that applies a current to the sensing coil and determines, based on a sensing result of the cooking vessel sensor, whether the cooking vessel is inductive or has an inductive heating property.

An induction hob uses induction heating to provide safe, energy efficient and flexible heating of vessels by using multiple coils and a controllable magnetic fluid. In addition, the hob provides increased control over electromagnetic (EM) field spatial distribution in the vicinity of the hob by guiding the EM field through the controllable magnetic fluid, and allows for more precise tuning of each load (which varies with vessel geometry, material properties, and placement) by controlling the volume and spatial distribution of magnetic fluid at each load coil, effectively acting as a tunable inductance in each load.