Electric heating – Microwave heating – With control system
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-29
2002-02-19
Walberg, Teresa (Department: 3742)
Electric heating
Microwave heating
With control system
C219S702000, C219S708000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06348680
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microwave oven, and more particularly to a food amount detector capable of automatically detecting the amount of food placed in the microwave oven, and to the microwave oven employing a food amount detector and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a microwave oven heats/cooks the food by microwave. Such a microwave oven comprises a high voltage transformer and a magnetron. The high voltage transformer transforms common voltage (220V/110V) into high voltage for driving the magnetron which generates the microwave of a predetermined degree of high frequency. In such a situation, the microwave vibrates the water molecules in food, so that the food is cooked by friction heat produced due to the vibration of water molecules.
FIG. 1
is a partial cutaway perspective view of a general microwave oven. In
FIG. 1
, reference numeral
1
designates a body,
2
is a cooking chamber,
3
is a device chamber,
4
is a door,
5
is a rotational plate, and
6
designates a cover. The inner space of the body
1
is divided into a left and a right space in which a cooking chamber
2
and a device chamber
3
are respectively defined. Electric devices are installed in the device chamber
3
. A cover
6
encases the body
1
, thereby forming the appearance of the microwave oven. A door
4
is pivotally fixed to one side of the body
1
, to open/close the front side of the cooking chamber
2
. A rotational plate
5
is disposed at the bottom surface of the cooking chamber
2
, and the food to be cooked is placed thereon. The rotational plate
5
is rotated by a driving motor (hereinafter referred to as DM; see
FIG. 2
) which is installed on the lower surface thereof. Additionally, reference numeral
7
designates a front panel,
8
is an air guide,
9
is a cooling fan, HVT is a High Voltage Transformer, HVC is a High Voltage Condenser, HVD is a High Voltage Diode, and MGT designates a Magnetron. Those are installed in the device chamber
3
. The high voltage transformer HVT transforms the common voltage 220V/110V into high voltage 2000V. The high voltage 2000V is doubled to 4000V by the high voltage condenser HVC and the high voltage diode HVD. The magnetron MGT is driven by such doubled voltage 4000V to generate a microwave of 2450MHz. The cooling fan
9
blows air into the device chamber
3
to cool the heated electric devices installed therein such as the magnetron MGT, high voltage transformer HVT, or the like. The air guide
8
is installed near the magnetron MGT, to guide air which has been heated while the magnetron MGT is cooled, into the cooking chamber
2
. The front panel
7
is installed at the front surface of the device chamber
3
. The user inputs the data of his selected keys into the microwave oven, and his selections for driving the microwave oven are displayed on the front panel
7
.
FIG. 2
is a schematic block diagram of FIG.
1
. In
FIG. 2
, reference numeral
10
designates a noise filter,
20
is a driving section,
30
is a microwave generator,
40
is a control section,
50
is a input section, and
60
designates a display section. An input section
50
inputs the signals of the user's selections into a control section
40
. A plurality of function keys
51
are provided in the input section
50
. Here, the function keys are for respective driving conditions of the microwave oven. More specifically, there could be the function keys for adjusting cooking temperature, cooking time, level of the microwave energy, or the like as the user wishes. In addition, there could be the function keys for selecting the automatic cooking process, in which the user inputs the data about the amount of the food so that the food is automatically cooked in accordance with the cooking data which were preset therefor. The display section
60
displays the driving conditions of the microwave oven. Here, the input section
50
and the display section
60
are preferably provided at the front panel
7
shown in FIG.
1
. The driving section
20
comprises driving motors DM and FM for respectively driving the rotational plate
5
and the cooling fan
9
. Further, the driving section
20
comprises relay switches RS
1
and RS
2
, respectively for supplying the driving power to the high voltage transformer HVT and the driving motors DM and FM. Accordingly, when the relay switches RS
1
and RS
2
of the driving section
20
are turned on, the driving power is supplied to the high voltage transformer HVT and the driving motors DM and FM. A general microcomputer would serve as the control section
40
. The control section
40
properly controls the driving conditions of the microwave oven by selectively turning on/off the relay switches RS
1
and RS
2
of the driving section
20
. The control section
40
also sends the signals to the display section
60
and displays such driving conditions of the microwave oven. The high voltage transformer HVT transforms the common voltage supplied from the driving section
20
into high voltage, and transmits the high voltage to the microwave generator
30
. The microwave generator
30
comprises the high voltage condenser HVC, the high voltage diode HVD, and the magnetron MGT. The microwave generator
30
is driven by high voltage supplied from the high voltage transformer HVT, just as it was described above with respect to FIG.
1
. The noise filter
10
receives the driving power, and transmits the driving power to the driving section
20
. Further, the noise filter
10
prevents feed back of high frequency wave generated from the microwave generator
30
toward an input line.
Operation of the conventional microwave oven constructed as above will be described below. First, the user pulls the door
4
of the body
1
and opens the cooling chamber
2
. Then, the user places the food to be cooked on the upper surface of the rotational plate
5
. Next, the user closes the door
4
, and selects cooking conditions of microwave oven by selecting function keys
51
of the input section
50
which is provided at the front panel
7
. By selecting the function keys
51
, the user sets the cooking time, temperature, and level of the microwave energy as he guesses proper for the amount of the food placed in the microwave oven. In addition to such a manually-selected driving condition, there may be an automatically-selected driving condition in which the user simply selects keys provided for the food he/she is preparing and the amount thereof, so that the food is cooked in a manner which was preset in the microwave oven. Accordingly, the input section
50
inputs the signals from the selected keys to the control section
40
, and the control section
40
drives the driving section
20
in accordance with the user's selections. More specifically, the control section
40
turns on the relay switch RS
1
so that the power is supplied to the high voltage transformer HVT. Accordingly, the high voltage transformer HVT transforms the common voltage 220V/110V into high voltage. And the high voltage condenser HVC and the high voltage diode HVD double the high voltage to 4000V, and supply the same to the magnetron MGT. The magnetron MGT is driven by such doubled high voltage 4000V to generate the microwave of 2450 MHz. Then microwave is radiated into the cooking chamber
2
so that the food is cooked. Further, the control section
40
simultaneously turns on the relay switches RS
1
and RS
2
so that the control section
40
drives the driving motors DM and FM, respectively. Accordingly, the rotational plate
5
of the cooking chamber
2
is rotated so that the microwave is uniformly radiated to the food. In this situation, the cooling fan
9
of the device chamber
3
blows air into the device chamber
9
, to cool the electric devices such as the high voltage transformer HVT, the magnetron MGT, the high voltage diode HVD, and the high voltage condenser HVC, etc. Here, the control section
40
turns on/off the relay switch RS
1
regularly, to control th
Kang Kwang-seok
Kim Chul
Lee Won-woo
Park Tae-soo
Burns Doane Swecker & Mathis L.L.P.
Samsung Electonics Co., Ltd.
Van Quang
Walberg Teresa
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