Abstract: A dielectric heating applicator has a low-loss dielectric with a dielectric constant exceeding that of the object to be heated by microwaves. An internal resonance is excited in the applicator, which may consist of one or several parts, each containing dielectric, so that a specified field pattern exists at and in the object. Another characteristic is that the part of the object being heated has dimensions which are considerably less than one vacuum wavelength corresponding to the frequency used.