A microwave heating device includes at least two radiating portions that are adapted to radiate microwaves to the heating chamber and can be operated according to a plurality of operational configurations that differ in frequency and/or in phase shift(s) between the radiated microwaves. Data of energy efficiency, as a function of operational configurations, can be obtained for a product in the heating chamber. For example, energy efficiency data are obtained through a learning procedure. The obtained data can be processed to select one or more operational configurations ranking high in energy efficiency and a heating procedure for the product inside the heating chamber can be executed by operating the at least two radiating portions according to the selected one or more operational configurations.

An electromagnetic cooking device and method of controlling the same is provided herein. The cooking device has a cavity in which popcorn is placed and a plurality of RF feeds configured to introduce electromagnetic radiation into the cavity for popping the popcorn. 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 popping state of the popcorn based on changes in the coefficient of variation; and adjust a power level of the electromagnetic radiation in response to detection of the popping state.

A heating cooker includes shooting section (201) for shooting an image inside a heating chamber that accommodates a heat-target object, and controller (200) that sets a shooting condition for shooting the image of an interior of the heating chamber and carries out an image recognition to the image. Controller (200) analyzes the image of the interior of the heating chamber, thereby recognizing a state inside the heating chamber, and then changes the shooting condition in response to the state inside the heating chamber for shooting the image. The structure discussed above allows this heating cooker (100a), which carries out the image recognition to the image of the interior of the heating chamber, to achieve a greater accuracy in the image recognition.

An embodiment of a heating system includes a cavity configured to contain a load, a thermal heating system (e.g., a convection, radiant, and/or gas heating system) in fluid communication with the cavity and configured to heat air, and an RF heating system. The RF heating system includes an RF signal source configured to generate an RF signal, first and second electrodes positioned across the cavity and capacitively coupled, a transmission path electrically coupled between the RF signal source and one or more of the first and second electrodes, and a variable impedance matching network electrically coupled along the transmission path between the RF signal source and the one or more electrodes. At least one of the first and second electrodes receives the RF signal and converts the RF signal into electromagnetic energy that is radiated into the cavity.

An apparatus for irradiating a load with UHF or microwave radiation includes a cavity for accepting a load, at least one energy feed for transmitting energy into the cavity at a plurality of UHF or microwave frequencies to irradiate the load, and a controller. The controller sets transmission durations, by setting for each of a plurality of frequencies, a respective transmission duration, repeatedly causes energy to be transmitted into the cavity at the plurality of UHF or microwave frequencies according to a duty cycle, and switches ON or OFF transmission of the energy at different frequencies in different repetitions of the duty cycle, which defines an allotted transmission time for each of the plurality of UHF or microwave frequencies. Over a plurality of repetitions of the duty cycle the energy is transmitted at each of the plurality of frequencies for the respective transmission duration.

A microwave oven is provided herein and includes a cavity. A first microwave supply system is configured to supply microwaves to a bottom of the cavity for energizing a crisp function. A second microwave supply system is configured to supply microwaves to the cavity for exciting cavity modes. A heating system is configured to provide a broiling function to the cavity. A control unit is configured to control the first microwave supply system, the second microwave supply system, and the heating system based on a mode of operation selected via a user interface.

Control electronics may control power amplifier electronics associated with application of RF energy generated using solid state electronic components. The power amplifier electronics may be configured to control application of RF energy in an oven according to a cooking recipe at least in part based on a learning procedure that generates a power cycling between high and low powers when the learning procedure is executed. The control electronics may include processing circuitry configured to employ a thermal stress mitigation technique to control thermal stresses on the power amplifier electronics associated with the power cycling.

A disclosed computer-implemented method for heating an item in a chamber of an electronic oven towards a target state includes heating the item with a set of applications of energy to the chamber while the electronic oven is in a respective set of configurations. The set of applications of energy and respective set of configurations define a respective set of variable distributions of energy in the chamber. The method also includes sensing sensor data that defines a respective set of responses by the item to the set of applications of energy. The method also includes generating a plan to heat the item in the chamber. The plan is generated by a control system of the electronic oven and uses the sensor data.

A microwave household appliance with at least one microwave source for generating microwaves, at least one microwave antenna for irradiating the microwaves in a treatment room and a control device for controlling the microwave household appliance based on quantized microwave parameters.

A method of processing an object is disclosed. The method comprises heating the object by applying radio frequency (RF) energy, monitoring a value related to a rate of absorption of RF energy by the object during the heating, and adjusting the RF energy in accordance with changes in a time derivative of the monitored value.