Wall-mounted microwave oven and method for controlling hood motor therefor

A microwave oven, comprising:

• a hood fan;
• a hood motor connected to said hood fan, driving said hood fan;
• a first switching unit connected to said hood motor varying an on-off duty cycle of a supply current supplied to said hood motor;
• a hood sensor connected to said first switching unit, said hood sensor automatically detecting whether said hood fan should be turned on or off depending on air temperature and smoke detection about said microwave oven;
• a microcomputer controlling manual input of speed of said hood fan;
• a control panel attached to said microcomputer, said control panel allowing a user to manually override said hood sensor and to manually adjust the speed of said fan;
• and
• a second switching unit disposed between said microcomputer and said first switching unit, said second switching unit controlling signals supplied by said microcomputer to said first switching unit controlling the speed of said hood fan.

The method of controlling a hood motor driving a hood fan in a microwave oven, comprising the steps of:

• providing a microcomputer receiving an external control signal from a user and generating a control signal in response to said external control signal;
• generating a driving signal to be supplied to a hood motor based on said control signal from said microcomputer;
• and
• controlling a duty cycle of current to be supplied to the hood motor according to said driving signal to thereby control the speed of the hood motor.