Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Tatsuya Tsuda

Masanobu Fujii

Yuzi Ando

Koichi Tateda

Masato Nakatani

Yuichi Mori

Sigeo Matsubara

Yoshikatsu Ohno

Masako Nogi

Hirokazu Tahara

A heating appliance including a heat source for heating air, a convection fan for blowing the heated air into a heating chamber, and an infrared radiator disposed in the path of the heated air.

Infrared ray heating appliance utilizing a convection fan

A heating appliance including a microwave heating source for heating an object, and an infrared ray heating source for heating the object in response to the operation of the microwave heating source by receiving energy from the microwave heating source and thus radiating infrared rays. Therefore, infrared ray heating is carried out in addition to the microwave heating.

Microwave heating and infrared ray heating appliance

A humidity detecting circuit for detecting the ambient humidity in a cooking chamber, which includes a constant current source, a first temperature-detecting resistor self-heated by the constant current source to detect the ambient humidity and having one terminal connected to an output terminal of the constant current source, and a second temperature-detecting resistor having one terminal connected to the one terminal of the first temperature-detecting resistor to detect the ambient temperature. An operational amplifier having an inverting input terminal, a noninverting input terminal and an output terminal is provided, the inverting input terminal being connected to the other terminal of the second temperature-detecting resistor so that the terminal voltage of the first temperature-detecting resistor may be inputted into the inverting input terminal through the second temperature-detecting resistor. A feedback resistor is associated with the operational amplifier and has one terminal connected to the output terminal of the operational amplifier and an other terminal connected to the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier.

Humidity detecting circuit

A heating apparatus contains a humidity sensor for detecting vapor amount generating from the heated object and a control unit for controlling the heating time on the basis of the signal output from the humidity sensor. The humidity sensor includes a first heat sensor for detecting the atmospheric temperature and a second heat sensor which is self-heated or heated by a heating source. The control unit includes a comparator for comparing the temperature change of the first heat sensor with that of the second heat sensor which change is caused by vapor generating from the heated object, and a control circuit for controlling the additional heating time on the basis of the time the signal output from the comparator took to reach the value preset for each kind of heated objects, when the preset value is reached.

Heating apparatus with humidity sensor

A heating appliance includes a heating circuit for heating an object disposed in a heating chamber, a detection circuit for detecting heat completion of the heated object, and a switch for switching between different power levels of the heating circuit prior to heat completion detecting by the detection circuit, heat completion being detected when the output of a sensor within the detection circuit reaches a predetermined value.

Heating appliance with uniform heating control

A control panel assembly adapted for controlling operation of a cooking utensil comprises a control panel, a printed wiring board forming a back surface of the control panel assembly, and circuit elements including a semiconductor chip device arranged on the printed wiring board. Virtually all the bodies of the circuit elements are mounted on a first surface of the printed wiring board. The first surface is opposite to a heating source for the cooking utensil. Virtually all electric connectors for the circuit elements are supported on a second surface of the printed wiring board, the second surface facing the heating source. With such a construction, the second surface including the electric connectors, namely, the back surface of the control panel assembly is substantially flat and non-rugged.

Control panel assembly

The present invention is directed to a microwave oven which may operate in a temperature control mode, wherein the temperature of a food to be cooked is maintained between two selectable values. The food temperature is sensed by a probe adapted for insertion into food being cooked in the microwave oven. The probe is electrically communicated to a microwave generation control circuit through a plug which is removably engaged in a socket secured by a microwave oven wall. When the plug is engaged by the socket, the microwave oven is automatically placed in the temperature control mode.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Tatsuya Tsuda