A defrosting system includes an RF signal source, one or more electrodes, a transmission path between the RF signal source and the electrode(s), and an impedance matching network coupled along the transmission path. A system controller may modify the impedance matching network to reduce the reflected signal power. The system controller may determine an initial estimate of the mass of the load. Desired signal parameters for the RF signal may be determined based on the initial estimated mass of the load. The system controller may determine a refined estimate of the load mass based on a rate of change of an S11, VSWR, or reflected power parameter measured at the transmission path, or based on elapsed time between matches. Refined signal parameters for the RF signal may be determined based on the refined estimated mass.

Apparatus and method for applying RF energy to determine a processing state of an object placed in a cavity, during processing of the object. The method includes applying RF energy to the object during the processing via at least one radiating element, receiving RF feedback from in or around the cavity, said RF feedback being indicative of a dielectric response of the cavity and/or the object to electromagnetic (EM) fields excited in the cavity, mathematically manipulating the RF feedback to obtain computed RF feedback, determining one or more processing states of the object based on a correlation between the computed RF feedback and the one or more processing states of the object, and monitoring the computed RF feedback during the applying to monitor the one or more processing states of the object.

A method for managing a microwave heating device able to operate based on a first signal having a first fundamental harmonic frequency that is within the microwave range, wherein operation of the microwave heating device (1) is interrupted or modified when, inside the microwave heating device (1), the presence of a second signal is detected, the latter having harmonic components which have frequencies that are different from a fundamental harmonic frequency and an intensity higher than a critical reference value.

Different aspects of the invention refer to a disinfection apparatus, and corresponding method, for wood barrel disinfection using microwave shock pulse, MwSP, technology for the complete elimination of microbial populations. This is accomplished by a system which ensures deep and complete disinfection, however such that the temperature is maintained below material degradation level. Complete disinfection is achieved due to effectiveness up to the deepest layers. The wooden barrel material is however preserved, due to the non-harmful nature of the dosage regime programmed into the radio frequency emission.

The present invention relates to a microwave powered sensor assembly for microwave ovens. The microwave powered sensor assembly includes a microwave antenna to generate an RF antenna signal in response to microwave radiation at a predetermined excitation frequency. A direct current (dc) power supply circuit of the microwave powered sensor assembly is operatively coupled to the RF antenna signal to extract energy from the RF antenna signal and produce a power supply voltage. A sensor is connected to the power supply voltage and configured to measure a physical or chemical property of a food item under heating in a microwave oven chamber.

This disclosure includes methods and systems that utilize energy absorption monitoring for intelligent electronic ovens with energy steering. One disclosed method for heating an item in an electronic oven includes introducing an application of energy into a heating chamber using an energy source coupled to an injection port, changing a distribution of the application of energy in the heating chamber by setting a configuration of the oven to a first configuration, and measuring an energy return from the heating chamber while the oven is in the first configuration. The measuring is conducted using a radio frequency directional power sensor. The method also includes determining that the energy return from the heating chamber exceeds a level, adjusting, in response to determining that the energy return exceeds the level, the configuration of the oven from the first configuration to an altered first configuration, and saving the altered first configuration in a memory.

A system and method for defrosting or heating are presented. A radio frequency (RF) signal source provides, through a transmission path, an RF signal to an electrode that is proximate to a cavity of a defrosting system. A rate of change of a ratio of a reflected RF power measurement and a forward RF power measurement along the transmission path is determined to have transitioned from a relatively high value to a relatively low value. At a point in time when the determination is made, the RF signal is provided to the electrode for an additional time duration beyond the point in time, and provision of the RF signal to the electrode is ceased when the additional time duration has expired.

A defrosting system includes an RF signal source, one or more electrodes proximate to a cavity within which a load to be defrosted is positioned, a transmission path between the RF signal source and the electrode(s), and an impedance matching network electrically coupled along the transmission path between the RF signal source output and the electrode(s). A system controller is configured to modify, based on the reflected signal power, values of variable passive components of the impedance matching network to reduce the reflected signal power. The system controller may be configured to estimate the mass of the load by comparing component value(s) of one or more variable passive components of the impedance matching network with a component value table stored in memory, where stored mass values correspond to the stored component values. Desired signal parameters for the RF signal may be determined based on the estimated mass of the load.

A wireless signal repeater includes an interior antenna located in an interior a cooking appliance, and an exterior antenna located outside the cooking appliance. A coupling portion connects the interior antenna to the exterior antenna through a hole in a wall of the cooking appliance for wirelessly retransmitting wireless signals received by the wireless signal repeater. According to another aspect, a cooking appliance includes a cooking chamber for cooking food, and an interior antenna located inside the cooking chamber. An exterior antenna is located on an exterior of the cooking appliance, and a coupling portion is configured to connect the interior antenna with the exterior antenna. According to another aspect, an aperture is located in a cooking chamber and a reflector is mounted over the aperture on an exterior of the cooking appliance and is configured to narrow a radiation pattern for wireless signals transmitted through the aperture.

A method for calibrating a set of devices, each device including an amplifying component and a measuring component that outputs a digital signal indicative of radio frequency power detected at the amplifying component, includes selecting a frequency from a set of frequencies; selecting a phase value from a set of phase values; selecting a power level from a set of power levels; setting a subset of the set of devices to output signal of the selected frequency, the selected phase value and the selected power level; measuring a forward power level and a backward power level; processing the measurements of the forward and backward power levels to calibrate the digital signal output from the measuring component of each of the set of devices; and encoding the calibrated digital signal output into non-volatile memory.