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Team Members: Robert Davis, Zachary Kaluza,ÌýChengcheng Han, Sean Lambert

Mentor/Sponsor: Professor Zoya Popovic and Qorvo, Inc.

Microwave oven technology has been a mainstay in nearly every home since its creation decades ago. However, despite the major advances in technology since then these indispensable kitchen aids still operate in nearly the same way as it has been done for decades. Consumers still have to deal with the uneven heating inherent to the design, and the microwave energy source is a magnetron tube which requires a large and heavy power supply. Commonly available microwave ovens based on magnetrons have relatively high efficiencies (about 50%). This can potentially be improved with solid-state technology that also requires lower supply voltages and can be made more easily scalable. Given that there are hundreds of thousands of microwaves in use globally, improving the scaling properties, size, efficiency and heating patterns would have a large impact.

The Intelligent Microwave is designed to reduce power consumption and the quality of heating in a consumer microwave oven, while improving heating uniformity in the heated substance. We propose to reduce the overall energy use and improve heating uniformity by using microwave wide-bandgap semiconductor transistors, power combining, phase control and various types of modulations. Microwave ovens are used both in large commercial settings as well as in the majority of modern home kitchens. The Intelligent Microwave is meant to be a drop-in replacement to a traditional microwave oven, and therefore has a vast market impact. As today’s consumers are increasingly aware of the impact of energy usage, and likely have experienced the irritation of uneven heating, the product is an
attractive solution. On the user side, the Intelligent Microwave acts much the same as current microwave ovens. The key advantages of the system relate to heating and power consumption. On one hand, the Intelligent Microwave monitors how the food is warming up, and attempts to optimize the power to improve how evenly the contents are heated. On the other, improvements to the microwave power system reduce the overall energy usage of the oven, while maintaining the speed expected by consumers. This allows for a smooth transition for users, as they need not understand how the unit is operating, but still benefit from energy savings and more even warming of their food.