The present invention relates to a medical preparation container which includes a microwave power sensor assembly. The microwave powered sensor assembly includes a sensor configured to measure a physical property or chemical property of a medical preparation during its heating in a microwave oven. The microwave powered sensor assembly is configured for harvesting energy from a microwave radiation emitted by the microwave oven and energize the sensor by the harvested microwave energy.

A microwave oven is described herein. In some instances, such a microwave oven may include a housing; a rotating turntable assembly disposed in a cooking cavity of the housing; a probe powered by the turntable assembly, where the probe is configured to measure an environmental condition during a cooking cycle and where the probe is configured to transmit a signal regarding the environmental condition; and a controller disposed in the housing and configured to receive the signal regarding the environmental condition from the probe. A method of operating a microwave oven for sous vide cooking is also disclosed.

An embodiment of a heating system includes a cavity configured to contain a load, a thermal heating system, and an RF heating system. The RF heating system includes a system controller, an RF signal source, one or more electrodes that receive an RF signal from the RF signal source and radiate resultant electromagnetic energy into the cavity, and a variable impedance matching network coupled between the RF signal source and the one or more electrodes. The system controller may monitor an impedance state of the variable impedance matching network to identify the occurrence of a change point. The system controller may estimate the mass of the load and a time and/or energy requirement for cooking the load based on the change point. The system controller may take action by turning off the RF heating system and/or thermal heating system when the time or energy requirement has been met.

In various embodiments, a method of decoding a custom cooking program includes using a tag reader to read heating instruction data encoded in an electronic tag, determining heating phases based on the read heating instruction data, and automatically controlling a heating apparatus to execute the determined heating phases.

In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a radio frequency (RF) generator that is to generate a RF signal, first and second electrodes, and an impedance match module in series between the RF generator and the first electrode. The RF generator detects reflected power from the RF signal applied to a load electrically coupled between the first and second electrodes to change a temperature of the load, the RF signal to be applied to the load until the reflected power reaches a particular value.

An electromagnetic cooking device and method of controlling the same is provided herein. The cooking device includes 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 heating state in 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 heating state.

Examples and techniques pertaining to avoidance of interference between wireless operation and microwave oven operation are described. A processor configures at least one of a magnetron of a microwave oven or a wireless transceiver of the microwave oven. The processor then controls operations of the magnetron and the wireless transceiver such that wireless communication by the wireless transceiver is not interfered by radiation from the magnetron as a result of the configuring.

A method and apparatus for delivering radio frequency electromagnetic energy to cook foodstuff in an enclosed cavity of a cooking device includes generating, with a small signal generating component, a radio frequency signal at a first power level, amplifying the radio frequency signal to a second power level greater than the first power level with a radio frequency amplification component, and feeding the amplified radio frequency signal to the enclosed cavity.

A cooking machine includes a microwave heating body, a transferring member for the cooking carrier, a transferring member for dish delivering and a cooking carrier for holding a object. The microwave heating body is moved up and down relative to the cooking carrier, and is correspondingly combined with the cooking carrier to form a heating cavity. The cooking carrier is pivotally arranged on the transferring member for the cooking carrier, and is movable to an initial position and a heating position. A cleaning assembly and a dish delivering member are arranged on the transferring member for dish delivering, and are movable to a position below the cooking carrier by turns. Thereby, the cooking carrier with the object can be cooked when moved to the heating position, and then moved to the initial position and turned to allow the cooked object to fall on the dish delivering member.

An electromagnetic cooking device and method of controlling the same is provided herein. The cooking device includes a cavity in which a food load is placed and a plurality of RF feeds configured to introduce electromagnetic radiation into the cavity for heating the food load. A controller is provided and is configured to: (a) measure resonances in the cavity; (b) generate a resonance map resulting from the measured resonances; (c) conditionally repeat steps (a) and (b); (d) detect a melting state of the food load based on variations between the resonance maps; and (e) adjust a power level of the electromagnetic radiation in response to detection of the melting state.