A cooking appliance includes a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber. A magnetron is mounted within the cabinet and is in communication with the cooking chamber to direct a microwave thereto. An induction heating coil is mounted within the cabinet and is in communication with the cooking chamber to direct a magnetic field thereto. A turntable is rotatably mounted in the cooking chamber above the induction heating coil. A motor is operatively coupled to the turntable and is mounted within the cabinet outside of the cooking chamber below and adjacent to the induction heating coil. The motor is operatively coupled to the turntable by a non-magnetic rotation hub extending through the induction heating coil.

An apparatus for heating a load with microwave energy is provided. The microwave energy is applied by the apparatus at frequencies wherein the load's dielectric constant is within a predetermined range. The apparatus may include a microwave power source configured to supply microwave energy at the applied frequencies; and a radiating plate. The radiating plate may include an electrically conductive structure that includes a plurality of radiating elements; and a feeding port, connecting the electrically conductive structure to the microwave power source. The radiating plate is configured so that most of the power fed from the microwave source through the feeding port returns towards the power source when no load is contacting the radiating plate, and most of the power fed from the microwave source through the feeding port is absorbed by the load to be heated by the apparatus when the load is contacting the radiating plate, even in absence of a microwave cavity that encloses the radiating plate and the load.

A cooking appliance includes a housing that defines a cavity therein, a door connected to the housing and configured to open and close the cavity, a microwave (MW) heating module configured to emit microwaves into the cavity, and an induction heating (IH) module configured to emit a magnetic field towards the cavity. The IH module includes a working coil that is configured to generate the magnetic field and a thin film that is disposed between the cavity and the working coil.

A method of operating a microwave oven and a microwave oven are disclosed. The microwave oven comprises a magnetron for providing microwave power to heat a load placed in the microwave oven, and a solid-state microwave generator for providing microwave power to sense presence and/or determine nature of the load in the microwave oven.

Methods and systems include melting or augmenting a melt rate of material in a melter using electromagnetic radiation with a frequency between 0.9 GHz and 10 GHz. In some examples, a power and/or frequency of radiation used may be selected so as to control a temperature of a cold cap in the melter while maintaining emissions from the melter below a threshold level. In this manner, examples described herein may provide for efficient and safe melting and vitrification of radioactive wastes.