An electromagnetic energy delivery system includes a set of radio frequency channels. Each channel includes a radio frequency feed, at least one high-power amplifier and a phase-shifting component. Each high-power radio frequency amplifier includes at least one amplifying component configured to output a periodic signal that is amplified in power with respect to an input radio frequency common reference signal. The phase-shifting component is configured to modulate the phase of the output periodic signal with respect to the input radio frequency signal. A controller coupled to the set of radio frequency channels can be configured to cause the output periodic signals from each of the radio frequency channels is to have a time-varying phase difference relative to the common reference signal and a phase difference relative to the other output periodic signals that is constant when averaged over time.

The invention relates to a method for operating a microwave device (1), the microwave device (1) comprising a cavity (2) and multiple microwave channels (CH1-CH4) for providing microwaves within said cavity (2), the method comprising the steps of: operating one or more microwave channels (CH1-CH4) at one or more first power levels and with varying phases in a data acquisition mode; gathering information regarding channel reverse power (RP) at the one or more microwave channels (CH1-CH4) during said data acquisition mode; establishing a mathematical model for each microwave chan-nel (CH1-CH4) based on said gathered information, said mathematical model providing information regarding channel reverse power (RP) for the respective microwave channel (CH1-CH4); determining operating parameters based on the established mathematical models; and, operating the microwave channels (CH1-CH4) of the microwave device (1) at one or more second power levels based on the determined operation parameters, the power of the second power levels being higher than the power of the first power levels.

An electromagnetic cooking device and method of controlling the same is provided herein. The cooking device has a cavity in which a liquid is placed and a plurality of RF feeds configured to introduce electromagnetic radiation into the cavity for heating the liquid. A controller is provided and is configured to: analyze forward and backward power at the plurality of RF feeds to calculate efficiency; determine and monitor a coefficient of variation of the efficiency; detect a specified temperature of the liquid based on changes in the coefficient of variation; and adjust a power level of the electromagnetic radiation in response to detection of the specified temperature.

An oven may include a cooking chamber configured to receive a heat modulating material (HMM), a radio frequency (RF) heating system configured to provide RF energy into the cooking chamber, and a cooking controller configured to control the frequency of RF energy provided by the RF heating system into the cooking chamber. The MINI may be configured to contain a food product and may include a thermally active section. The thermally active section may include a base matrix and a particulate material dispersed in the base matrix.

A method of sensing at least one load parameter of a closed chamber by a sensing device by means of electromagnetic radiation is described, in which measurements of at least one measured variable are used. A first measurement is carried out when there is a first spatial distribution of the electric field generated by the electromagnetic radiation. At least a second measurement is carried out when there is a second spatial distribution of the electric field generated by the electromagnetic radiation, which differs from the first spatial distribution of the electric field. The at least two measurements are evaluated with regard to the at least one measured variable by means of a mathematical operation and/or mathematical transformation to obtain at least one evaluation variable from the measurement results by means of which the load parameter is determined by applying a pattern recognition which includes the at least one evaluation variable as an input variable, and/or a mathematical model which comprises the at least one evaluation variable and at least one training parameter that has been ascertained based on previous tests. Furthermore, a sensing device is described. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method of training, to a computer program, and to a computer-readable data carrier.

The present invention provides a microwave processing apparatus, including: a cavity resonator having a cavity that forms a standing wave of a microwave; and a dielectric portion disposed occupying at least one-fifth of a volume of the cavity, in the cavity, in which an object to be processed being at through at least one end side of the cavity resonator is disposed in the cavity resonator, and the object to be processed is processed by the standing wave.

An electromagnetic cooking device includes a cavity in which a food load is placed, a plurality of RF feeds for introducing electromagnetic radiation into the enclosed cavity, and a controller configured to detect asymmetries and select rotations that compensate for the asymmetries; select a heating target including a plurality of resonant modes that are rotated using the selected rotations in the preceding step; generate a heating strategy based on the heating target to determine a sequence of desired heating patterns; cause the RF feeds to output a radio frequency signal to thereby excite the enclosed cavity with a selected set of phasors for a set of frequencies; and monitor the created heating patterns based on the forward and backward power measurements at the RF feeds to use closed-loop regulation to selectively modify the sequence of resonant modes into the enclosed cavity based on the desired heating patterns as monitored.

A cooking apparatus is disclosed. The cooking apparatus according to one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure comprises: an inner wall for forming a cooking chamber; an outer wall for encompassing the inner wall; a microwave generating part for emitting a microwave at a passage, which is a space surrounded by the inner wall and the outer wall; and an absorbing layer absorbing the microwave to be propagated along the passage, so as to emit an infrared ray at the cooking chamber.

An electromagnetic cooking device includes a cavity in which a food load is placed, a plurality of RF feeds for introducing electromagnetic radiation into the enclosed cavity, and a controller configured to select a heating target including a plurality of unrotated resonant modes; detect asymmetries of the food load relative to a center of the enclosed cavity and select rotations for the plurality of unrotated resonant modes that compensate for the detected asymmetries of the food load to generate a plurality of optimized resonant modes; generate a heating strategy having a selected sequence of the optimized resonant modes; cause the RF feeds to excite the enclosed cavity with a selected set of phasors for a set of frequencies corresponding to each resonant mode of the selected sequence of optimized resonant modes; and monitor the created heating patterns using closed-loop regulation to selectively modify the sequence of optimized resonant modes.

A microwave treatment device comprises: a heating chamber that accommodates an object to be heated; a microwave generator that generates a microwave in a specified frequency band; an amplifier that amplifies the microwave; a feeding unit that supplies the amplified microwave to the heating chamber; a detector that detects a reflected microwave power; and a controller. The controller selects one of plural frequencies in the specified frequency band and causes the microwave generator to generate the microwave with the selected frequency. The controller causes the amplifier to change an output power of the microwave so that the microwave supplied to the heating chamber has one of plural output powers. The controller measures a reflected microwave frequency characteristic based on reflected microwave powers detected under each of a condition that the microwave has a first output power and a condition that the microwave has a second output power.