A household microwave appliance includes a rotary antenna having a plurality of wings rotatable about a common axis of rotation, with a relative angle between at least two of the plurality of wings being adjustable in a motor-driven manner about the axis of rotation.

A cooking apparatus includes a cooking chamber, a heating source disposed below the cooking chamber to produce high-frequency waves, a main plate forming at least a portion of the cooking chamber and including a front side which is opened, a front plate coupled to the front side of the main plate and including a base having an opening connected to the cooking chamber, and a front coupling flange. The front coupling flange is bent rearward from an inner end of the base, coupled by curling with the main plate, and has a portion which protrudes above a lower surface of the main plate.

A microwave appliance includes a microwave facility which generates microwaves and introduces the microwaves into a cooking compartment and which is operable with at least two configurations to generate different field distributions of the microwaves in the cooking compartment. A temperature acquisition facility contactlessly acquires a heat distribution in the cooking compartment, and a data processing facility identifies a non-food to be cooked region in the cooking compartment from the acquired heat distribution. A control facility sets a current configuration of the microwave facility and operates the microwave facility The control facility selects or sets at least one of the configurations of the microwave facility with regard to reducing a power of the microwaves in the identified non-food to be cooked region.

The heating cooker includes a first heater disposed below a tray to heat the tray, and second heater disposed over the tray to heat the tray. In addition, the heating cooker includes a controller that controls output of the first heater and switches energization of second heater in accordance with a kind of object to be heated and a quantity of object to be heated. Furthermore, second heater includes two plane-shaped insulators and a plurality of planar heat generators that are sandwiched between insulators, and the controller heats regions that are disposed over and below the tray to be opposed to each other by controlling energization of the first heater and second heater. Furthermore, second heater has a distortion suppressor between the plurality of planar heat generators, and the distortion suppressor suppresses internal distortion of insulators caused by heating of the plurality of planar heat generators of second heater.

A rotating antenna (105a) includes: a ceiling surface (109) and a side-wall surface (110) that constitute a waveguide structure (108); and a horn (113) that radiates a microwave into a heating chamber. The rotating antenna (105a) further includes a flange (112) that is formed on a periphery of the side-wall surface (110) so as to face a bottom surface (111), which is an inner wall surface of the heating chamber, and so as to surround the side-wall surface (110). The flange (112) has choke sections (117) that reduce a leakage of the microwave. This configuration can generate a relatively low impedance region so as to surround the side-wall surface (110), thereby enhancing a leakage reducing performance of the rotating antenna (105a) and increasing directivity of the microwave radiated from the rotating antenna (105a). Consequently, if a part of substances to be heated arranged on a plate is a food that a user does not want to warm, the rotating antenna (105a) selectively heats an area in which a food that the user wants to warm is present but hardly heats the food that the user does not want to warm.

Disclosed herein is a microwave oven having an improved structure with which foods can be effectively heated. The microwave oven includes: a housing including a cooking chamber having a bottom surface; at least one first reflective portion formed on the bottom surface of the cooking chamber; a magnetron provided to generate microwave radiation; and a tray disposed apart from the bottom surface of the cooking chamber and supporting food to be heated. The at least one first reflective portion extends a given height (h) above a reference level (RL).

The present invention includes a directional coupler that detects at least part of a reflected wave inside a waveguide. When an object to be heated is absent, a reflected wave is strong, because there is nothing to absorb a microwave. When the object is present, the reflected wave is weak, because the microwave is absorbed by the object. As a quantity of the object becomes greater, a larger amount of microwave is absorbed by the object, and thus the reflected wave is weakened. It is thus possible to determine the quantity of the object from a reflected wave detection amount detected by the directional coupler without using a detector that detects a load.

The present invention has a configuration of controlling a motor so as to stop a radiation antenna when the radiation antenna faces in a direction in which a reflected wave detection amount is minimized and to stop the radiation antenna when the radiation antenna faces in a different direction different from the direction in which the reflected wave detection amount is minimized. According to this configuration, first, the radiation antenna stops when facing in the direction in which the reflected wave detection amount is minimized. This extends a heating time under the most efficient condition, improving a heating efficiency in comparison with when the radiation antenna constantly rotates. Second, the radiation antenna stops when facing in the different directions. This causes uneven heating when the radiation antenna faces in the direction in which the reflected wave detection amount is minimized as well as when the radiation antenna faces in the different directions. As a result, the uneven heating is cancelled out by the uneven heating each other caused at different locations. In this way, it is possible to achieve the even heating.

The invention relates to a system (100) for preparing at least one food product (1), comprising: a cooking chamber (10), in which at least one preparation area (5) is provided, wherein the at least one food product (1) can be positioned and prepared at the least one preparation area (5), at least one antenna arrangement (30) for supplying energy of electromagnetic energy (80) into the cooking chamber (10), whereby the at least one food product (1) can be heated, one transmission device (40) for operating the antenna arrangement (30), wherein at least one antenna (31) of the antenna arrangement (30) is oriented depending on the preparation area (5) and is operable according to at least one operation mode by the transmission device (40), so that a performance-optimized temperature zone distribution for heating the food product (1) can be generated.

A microwave heating apparatus is disclosed. The heating apparatus comprises a cavity comprising a ceiling and a bottom support plate. The cavity is arranged to receive a food load. The apparatus further comprises at least one microwave supply system configured to supply microwaves at the cavity bottom. The at least one microwave supply system comprises at least one microwave source and at least one antenna arranged below the bottom support plate. The apparatus further comprises a heat element and a crisp plate. The heat element is connected proximate the ceiling and extends substantially over a ceiling area formed by the ceiling. The crisp plate is disposed in the cavity and vertically spaced from the bottom support plate by a rack.