System and method for zone cooking according to spectromodal theory in an electromagnetic cooking device

An electromagnetic cooking device comprising:

• an enclosed cavity configured to receive a food load;
• a plurality of high power amplifiers configured to amplify a first radio frequency (RF) signal and a second RF signal thereby supplying the RF signals to the enclosed cavity;
• a plurality of RF feeds for receiving the RF signals from the plurality of high power amplifiers to introduce electromagnetic radiation corresponding to the RF signals into the enclosed cavity;
• and
• a controller in communication with the plurality of amplifiers, the controller configured to:
• scan the enclosed cavity with using the plurality of RF feeds;
• based on the scan, identify a plurality of resonant frequencies and corresponding phases of the RF feeds;
• create and store a resonance map in the frequency phase domain;
• classify symmetries in the resonant map;
• determine paths defining stirring routes between poles of different symmetries;
• determine midpoints in the paths with a maximum unbalance between reflected powers of the plurality of respective high power amplifiers;
• classify the unbalance in terms of power steered to a first side of the food load with respect to power steered to a second side of the food load;
• synthesize a heating strategy for zone cooking using the classified unbalance;
• and
• implement the heating strategy by causing the plurality of high power amplifiers and RF feeds to introduce the electromagnetic radiation at specific frequencies and phases into the cavity, wherein the specific frequencies and phases are selected in accordance with the heating strategy.

An electromagnetic cooking device comprising:

• an enclosed cavity configured to receive a food load;
• a plurality of high power amplifiers configured to amplify a first RF signal and a second radio frequency (RF) signal thereby supplying the RF signals to the enclosed cavity;
• a plurality of RF feeds for receiving the RF signals from the plurality of high power amplifiers to introduce electromagnetic radiation corresponding to the RF signals into the enclosed cavity;
• and
• a controller in communication with the plurality of amplifiers, the controller configured to:
• scan the enclosed cavity using the plurality of RF feeds;
• based on the scan, identify a plurality of resonant frequencies and corresponding phases of the RF feeds;
• create and store a resonance map in the frequency phase domain;
• classify symmetries in the resonant map;
• determine paths defining stirring routes between poles of different symmetries;
• determine midpoints in the paths with a maximum unbalance between reflected powers of the plurality of respective high power amplifiers;
• classify the unbalance in terms of power steered to a first side of the food load with respect to power steered to a second side of the food load, wherein information used for classifying the unbalance may be pre-stored in a look-up table and recalled using at least one of:
• a recipe;
• a computational electromagnetic engine;
• and an IR sensor testing of at least one of two asymmetric paths;
• synthesize a heating strategy for zone cooking using the classified unbalance;
• and
• implement the heating strategy by causing the plurality of high power amplifiers and RF feeds to introduce the electromagnetic radiation at specific frequencies and phases into the cavity, wherein the specific frequencies and phases are selected in accordance with the heating strategy.