Panasonic Holdings Corporation

Panasonic Corporation

Ryosuke Suga

Koji Yoshino

Osamu Hashimoto

Masayuki Kubo

Masafumi Sadahira

Yoshiharu Oomori

A microwave treatment apparatus includes a treatment chamber, a microwave supply, and a resonator unit. The treatment chamber is surrounded by a plurality of walls, and accommodates a heating target. The microwave supply supplies a microwave to the treatment chamber. The resonator unit is provided on one wall of the plurality of walls, and the resonator unit has a resonance frequency in a frequency band of the microwave. In this embodiment, the impedance of the surface of the resonator unit can be changed by controlling the frequency of the microwave supplied to the treatment chamber. This makes it possible to control the standing wave distribution within the treatment chamber, that is, the microwave energy distribution within the treatment chamber. As a result, in the cases where a plurality of heating targets need to be heated simultaneously, desired dielectric heating is conducted for each of the heating targets.

Microwave processing device

A microwave heating device includes a heating chamber that accommodates an object to be heated, a microwave generator configured to generate microwaves, a wave guide tube configured to guide the microwaves to the heating chamber, and an electromagnetic field distribution adjustment device that is provided in a two-dimensional region located in at least a part of a wall face within the heating chamber. The electromagnetic field distribution adjustment device has a plurality of metal pieces arranged to fill a predetermined two-dimensional region, and a switch provided between two metal pieces adjacent to each other among the plurality of metal pieces. The switch is connected to the two metal pieces adjacent to each other through two conductors each of which is provided on a corresponding one of the two metal pieces adjacent to each other, and smaller than the two metal pieces adjacent to each other. According to the present aspect, uneven heating, which is caused by heating an object to be heated with a microwave heating device, can be reduced.

Electromagnetic field distribution adjustment device and microwave heating device

A microwave heating device includes a heating chamber that accommodates an object to be heated, a microwave generator configured to generate microwaves, a wave guide tube configured to guide the microwaves to the heating chamber, and an electromagnetic field distribution adjustment device provided in a predetermined two-dimensional region within the heating chamber. The electromagnetic field distribution adjustment device has a plurality of metal pieces and a plurality of switches. The plurality of metal pieces are arranged to fill the predetermined two-dimensional region. The plurality of switches connect the plurality of metal pieces with one another. A serially connected row of metal pieces is configured by connecting one metal piece among the plurality of metal pieces to at most two metal pieces adjacent to the one metal piece through at least two of the plurality of switches. The present exemplary embodiment can achieve a low-cost electromagnetic field distribution adjustment device that heats an object to be heated more uniformly, while preventing a drop in heating efficiency.

There are provided heating chamber, and reflection angle control device provided on upper wall configuring at least part of walls of heating chamber and configured to control a reflection angle of a microwave to control standing wave distribution in heating chamber. Reflection angle control device controls the reflection angle of the microwave when the microwave radiated from microwave radiation device is not directly absorbed into heating target but is reflected by the wall. Standing wave distribution in heating chamber can thus be controlled to be different from ordinary distribution for improvement in local heating performance.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Ryosuke Suga