Back to results
US 2003/0192885 A1Published application
Microwave oven
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsJong-Chull Shon, Won-Woo Lee, So-Hyun Lee, Keun-Seuk Oh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsJong-Chull Shon, Won-Woo Lee, So-Hyun Lee, Keun-Seuk Oh
Estimating the term…
A microwave oven performs a cooking operation in one of several cooking modes having a first cooking time period and a second cooking time period. The first cooking time period is determined in accordance with an output value of a sensor which senses a state of air in a cooking cavity of the microwave oven. The second cooking time period is determined in accordance with the first cooking time period such that the first and second cooking time periods are expressed by a functional relation. The cooking modes include a standard mode with a standard second cooking time period, a high mode with a longer cooking time than the standard second cooking time period, and a low mode with a shorter cooking time than the standard second cooking time period. The high mode is preset such that a variation in its second cooking time period is increased in proportion to the first cooking time period, while the low mode is preset such that a variation in its second cooking time period is increased in inverse proportion to the first cooking time period. The microwave oven allows a user to set a cooking time period such that the cooking time period is controllably lengthened or shortened in proportion to the quantity of food contained in the microwave oven.
A microwave oven which performs a cooking operation in one of cooking modes having a first cooking time period and a second cooking time period, comprising:
A cooking apparatus which performs a cooking operation having first and second cooking time periods, comprising:
A method of controlling a cooking operation of a cooking apparatus, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Backward citations are indexed for grants only.
For monitoring or control: for cooking
Electric heating
Term end not estimated
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to microwave ovens, and more particularly, to a microwave oven which controls a variation in a cooking time period in accordance and proportionally with the quantity of food being cooked.
2. Description of the Related Art
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
FIG. 1 is a graph illustrating a conventional method of controlling a cooking operation of a known microwave oven;
FIG. 2 is a graph showing characteristic curves of three types of cooking modes selected by a user through a mode-selecting unit of the known microwave oven;
Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.
FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of a microwave oven according to an embodiment of the present invention. The microwave oven comprises a body 1 having a cooking cavity 2 and a machine room 3 therein. A door 4 is hinged to the body 1 at a position in front of the cooking cavity 2, and allows a user to open or close the cooking cavity 2. A control panel 5 is provided at a front surface of the body 1. The control panel 5 includes an input unit 5a (to be described in detail herein) which has a plurality of control buttons, and a display unit 5b (not shown) which displays information thereon during a cooking operation of the microwave oven. A humidity sensor 6 is installed in the body 1 so as to sense a state of air, that is, a moisture content of the air in the cooking cavity 2.
The cooking cavity 2 is opened at its front, and has a turntable-type cooking tray 2a arranged on the bottom of the cooking cavity 2. An air inlet port 7a is provided at a front portion of a first sidewall 7 of the cooking cavity 2, so as to have the cooking cavity 2 communicate with the machine room 3 through the air inlet port 7a. Atmospheric air is thus introduced from the machine room 3 into the cooking cavity 2 through the air inlet port 7a. An air outlet port 8a is provided at a rear portion of a second sidewall 8 of the cooking cavity 2, and discharges the air from the cooking cavity 2 to the outside of the body 1.