Uniform/Selective Heating Microwave Oven Using High Efficiency GaN-on-GaN HEMT Power Amplifier

Abstract

A high-efficiency uniform/selective heating microwave oven was developed. Because the power amplifier requires high-efficiency characteristics to function as a microwave source, a free-standing Gallium Nitride (GaN) substrate was applied in this study. By applying a harmonic tuning circuit, an output power of 71 W and PAE of 73% were achieved in pulsed operation, and an output power of 63 W and PAE of 69% were achieved in CW operation. Moreover, we fabricated a prototype PA module that consists of an oscillator, a driver amplifier, PA, and other RF circuits. The output power was controlled by pulse width modulation to maintain high efficiency regardless of output power. We evaluated the arrangement of antenna polarizations to isolate each antenna. By suppressing the interference of output from adjacent antennas, it is possible to irradiate the object on the top surface of the antenna, thereby demonstrating heating characteristics with small temperature unevenness. The prototype microwave oven successfully demonstrated uniform/selective heating.