Patents by Inventor Tomotaka Nobue

Tomotaka Nobue has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10285224
    Abstract: A microwave processing apparatus is provided with an oscillator, a power amplifier, a heating chamber that accommodates an object to be heated, a power feeder which is disposed on a wall surface of the heating chamber, which receives an output transmitted from a microwave generator and which radiatively feeds the microwave into the heating chamber, and a power detector that detects the power reflected from the power feeder to the power amplifier. The microwave processing apparatus determines a plurality of points of heating frequencies by using top several points of minimum point frequencies of the reflected power, and performs frequency hopping heating within a predetermined unit time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Keisuke Muto, Tomotaka Nobue
  • Patent number: 10135107
    Abstract: A directional coupler according to the invention includes an opening in a wall surface of a waveguide, and a coupling line on an outer side of the waveguide. The opening is configured to not cross a tube axis of the waveguide in plan view, and to emit a circularly polarized wave. The coupling line includes first and second transmission lines and output parts disposed at both ends, the first and second transmission lines extending across the opening to cross the tube axis in plan view and being opposed to each other across the center of the opening. The first and second transmission lines are interconnected at a position displaced from an area vertically above the opening.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Koji Yoshino, Tomotaka Nobue, Kenji Yasui, Yoshiharu Omori, Masafumi Sadahira, Masayuki Kubo
  • Patent number: 10045403
    Abstract: A microwave heating device of the present invention comprises a heating chamber housing an object to be heated, a microwave generation portion generating a microwave, a waveguide portion propagating the microwave, and a plurality of microwave radiating portions radiating the microwave in the heating chamber, wherein the microwave radiating portions are arranged in a direction orthogonal to a direction of electric field and to a direction of propagation within the waveguide portion, and centers of the microwave radiating portions are arranged at positions corresponding to approximate node positions of the electric field within the waveguide portion. The microwave heating device is enabled to make uniform heat distribution in the object to be heated, without using a driving mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2018
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Daisuke Hosokawa, Koji Yoshino, Makoto Nishimura, Masafumi Sadahira, Tomoya Fujinami, Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Omori
  • Patent number: 9876481
    Abstract: A microwave processing device includes: a periodic structure body which forms a surface-wave transmission line to transmit surface waves of microwaves; an oscillator which generates microwave power; and a transmitting part which transmits the microwave power generated by the oscillator to the periodic structure body, wherein a matching part is provided at a connecting portion between the periodic structure body and the transmitting part, and an impedance of the matching part is set to a value between an impedance of the periodic structure body and an impedance of the transmitting part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoshiharu Omori, Tomotaka Nobue, Hiroshi Kawai, Koji Yoshino, Keijirou Kunimoto
  • Patent number: 9648670
    Abstract: A microwave heating device according to the present invention includes a microwave oscillation portion including a reference-signal oscillator formed from a quarts oscillator, phase variable portions and phase-locked loops and, further, includes a control portion for controlling the microwave oscillation portion, and plural radiation portions placed on a wall surface of a heating chamber for housing a to-be-heated object, wherein microwaves supplied to plural microwave feeding points provided in the radiation portions are controlled in phase and electric power, thereby controlling the aspect of radiations of microwaves radiated from the radiation portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Oomori, Kenji Yasui, Makoto Mihara
  • Patent number: 9609698
    Abstract: A microwave heating device mountable to an electric device, includes: a commercial power supply; an AC/DC converter which outputs a plurality of DC voltages according to power supplied from the commercial power supply; a controller which receives power from the AC/DC converter and totally controls the electric device; a microwave processing device using a compound semiconductor which receives a plurality of outputs of the AC/DC converter and outputs a microwave; and a plurality of loads connected between, of the DC voltages output from the AC/DC converter, a predetermined Vd voltage and ground through a plurality of contacts. The loads form a group of electric components in the electric device. The controller controls power supply to the loads, and controls on/off of the contacts to drive the loads by the Vd voltage regardless of the voltage of the commercial power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2017
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Makoto Mihara, Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Omori, Toshiyuki Okajima
  • Patent number: 9585203
    Abstract: In a microwave heating device of the present invention, a heating-chamber input portion is adapted to direct, to a heating chamber, microwaves having propagated through a waveguide tube and having passed through the positions where microwave radiating portions are formed, thereby realizing a state where progressive waves are dominant among the microwaves propagating through the waveguide tube, so that the microwave radiating portions are caused to radiate, to the inside of the heating chamber, microwaves based on the progressive waves propagating through the waveguide tube. This enables uniformly heating an object to be heated, without using a rotational mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masafumi Sadahira, Daisuke Hosokawa, Koji Yoshino, Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Omori
  • Patent number: 9398646
    Abstract: In order to provide a microwave heating device and a microwave heating control method which are capable of uniformly heating a to-be-heated object in a desired state, by employing plural feeding portions provided in a heating chamber on the basis of information about reflected electric power from the respective feeding portions; a control portion controls to supply microwave electric power from plural feeding portions to a heating chamber by operating a microwave generating portion at a heating frequency for heating a to-be-heated object, estimates a heating state for the to-be-heated object on the basis of per-unit-time increase/decrease change states of detected levels of detection signals detected by electric-power detection portions, and controls the heating frequency and the microwave electric power supplied from the feeding portions to the heating chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Oomori, Kenji Yasui, Makoto Mihara
  • Publication number: 20150288342
    Abstract: A microwave processing device includes: a periodic structure body which forms a surface-wave transmission line to transmit surface waves of microwaves; an oscillator which generates microwave power; and a transmitting part which transmits the microwave power generated by the oscillator to the periodic structure body, wherein a matching part is provided at a connecting portion between the periodic structure body and the transmitting part, and an impedance of the matching part is set to a value between an impedance of the periodic structure body and an impedance of the transmitting part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2013
    Publication date: October 8, 2015
    Inventors: Yoshiharu Omori, Tomotaka Nobue, Hiroshi Kawai, Koji Yoshino, Keijirou Kunimoto
  • Publication number: 20150244055
    Abstract: A directional coupler according to the invention includes an opening in a wall surface of a waveguide, and a coupling line on an outer side of the waveguide. The opening is configured to not cross a tube axis of the waveguide in plan view, and to emit a circularly polarized wave. The coupling line includes first and second transmission lines and output parts disposed at both ends, the first and second transmission lines extending across the opening to cross the tube axis in plan view and being opposed to each other across the center of the opening. The first and second transmission lines are interconnected at a position displaced from an area vertically above the opening.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2014
    Publication date: August 27, 2015
    Applicant: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Yoshino, Tomotaka Nobue, Kenji Yasui, Yoshiharu Omori, Masafumi Sadahira, Masayuki Kubo
  • Patent number: 9119234
    Abstract: A drawer type heating apparatus includes a heating case forming a heating space, and an openable door adapted to be moved in a drawing manner relative to the heating case for opening and closing an opening portion, and includes a radio-wave transmission suppression portion which is faced to inner wall surfaces of the opening portion of the heating case, and placed such that there is a predetermined gap between the radio-wave transmission suppression portion and the entire periphery of the inner wall surfaces of the opening portion in the heating case, in a state where the openable door is closed, the radio-wave transmission suppression portion including a first radio-wave-propagation-direction suppression-area constituted by a surface with a plurality of steps, and a second radio-wave-propagation-direction suppression-area having suppression protruding portions which are periodically formed and placed in such a way as to face the first radio-wave-propagation-direction suppression-area with a predetermined int
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Omori, Yuko Fujii
  • Publication number: 20150173128
    Abstract: A microwave heating device of the present invention comprises a heating chamber housing an object to be heated, a microwave generation portion generating a microwave, a waveguide portion propagating the microwave, and a plurality of microwave radiating portions radiating the microwave in the heating chamber, wherein the microwave radiating portions are arranged in a direction orthogonal to a direction of electric field and to a direction of propagation within the waveguide portion, and centers of the microwave radiating portions are arranged at positions corresponding to approximate node positions of the electric field within the waveguide portion. The microwave heating device is enabled to make uniform heat distribution in the object to be heated, without using a driving mechanism.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2013
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Inventors: Daisuke Hosokawa, Koji Yoshino, Makoto Nishimura, Masafumi Sadahira, Tomoya Fujinami, Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Omori
  • Publication number: 20150136758
    Abstract: In order to radiate microwaves from a waveguide tube to a whole area from end to end of a radiation area within a heating chamber, and to heat uniformly an object to be heated without using a driving mechanism, a microwave heating device of the present invention includes openings for radiating the microwave from the waveguide tube to the inside of the heating chamber. The heating chamber includes a radiation area which has a length of approximate twice an in-tube wavelength in a propagation direction of the waveguide tube. Also, the openings are arranged to have an interval of approximate the in-tube wavelength in the propagation direction of the waveguide tube, and are symmetrically arranged to a center line which intersects perpendicularly to the propagation direction in the radiation area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2013
    Publication date: May 21, 2015
    Inventors: Koji Yoshino, Masafumi Sadahira, Daisuke Hosokawa, Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Omori
  • Patent number: 9029744
    Abstract: A microwave heating apparatus includes, within a heating room, a placement table having a horizontal placement surface for placing an object to be heated, and a plurality of feeding portions which are placed on a wall surface of the heating room for supplying microwave electric power to the heating room. The microwave heating apparatus is adapted to relatively move the position of the straight line connecting two feeding portions to each other, with respect to the object to be heated, through a movement mechanism portion, and to detect a phase difference between the microwave electric powers which minimizes reflected electric power returning from the heating room to the two feeding portions, for detecting the state of placement of the object to be heated on the placement table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshiharu Oomori, Tomotaka Nobue, Kenji Yasui, Makoto Mihara
  • Publication number: 20150041458
    Abstract: A microwave processing apparatus is provided with an oscillator, a power amplifier, a heating chamber that accommodates an object to be heated, a power feeder which is disposed on a wall surface of the heating chamber, which receives an output transmitted from a microwave generator and which radiatively feeds the microwave into the heating chamber, and a power detector that detects the power reflected from the power feeder to the power amplifier. The microwave processing apparatus determines a plurality of points of heating frequencies by using top several points of minimum point frequencies of the reflected power, and performs frequency hopping heating within a predetermined unit time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Publication date: February 12, 2015
    Applicant: PANASONIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Keisuke Muto, Tomotaka Nobue
  • Publication number: 20140361009
    Abstract: A microwave heating device mountable to an electric device, includes: a commercial power supply; an AC/DC converter which outputs a plurality of DC voltages according to power supplied from the commercial power supply; a controller which receives power from the AC/DC converter and totally controls the electric device; a microwave processing device using a compound semiconductor which receives a plurality of outputs of the AC/DC converter and outputs a microwave; and a plurality of loads connected between, of the DC voltages output from the AC/DC converter, a predetermined Vd voltage and ground through a plurality of contacts. The loads form a group of electric components in the electric device. The controller controls power supply to the loads, and controls on/off of the contacts to drive the loads by the Vd voltage regardless of the voltage of the commercial power supply.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 12, 2012
    Publication date: December 11, 2014
    Inventors: Makoto Mihara, Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Omori, Toshiyuki Okajima
  • Patent number: 8901470
    Abstract: In a microwave heating apparatus of the invention, microwaves from oscillation parts 1a, 1b are divided into a plurality of microwaves by power division parts 2a, 2b and inputted to amplification parts 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, and desired microwave powers from the amplification parts are supplied from feeding parts 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d to a heating chamber 8. Reflected powers reflected from the heating chamber to the amplification parts via the feeding parts are detected by power detection parts 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d. Each of the feeding parts has a plurality of antennas for supplying the microwaves having different characteristics to the heating chamber, and a control part 7 extracts an oscillating frequency with which the reflected powers detected by the power detection parts are minimum, and causes the oscillation parts to oscillate at the extracted oscillating frequency so as to supply the microwaves having the different characteristics from the plurality of antennas to the heating chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshiharu Oomori, Tomotaka Nobue, Kenji Yasui, Makoto Mihara
  • Publication number: 20140166645
    Abstract: In a microwave heating device of the present invention, a heating-chamber input portion is adapted to direct, to a heating chamber, microwaves having propagated through a waveguide tube and having passed through the positions where microwave radiating portions are formed, thereby realizing a state where progressive waves are dominant among the microwaves propagating through the waveguide tube, so that the microwave radiating portions are caused to radiate, to the inside of the heating chamber, microwaves based on the progressive waves propagating through the waveguide tube. This enables uniformly heating an object to be heated, without using a rotational mechanism.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2012
    Publication date: June 19, 2014
    Applicant: PANASONIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masafumi Sadahira, Daisuke Hosokawa, Koji Yoshino, Tomotaka Nobue, Yoshiharu Omori
  • Patent number: 8680446
    Abstract: A microwave heating apparatus includes a microwave generation part 10 using a semiconductor element, and first and second heating chambers 100a, 100b to each of which a microwave generated in the microwave generation part is fed. A reflected microwave returned from at least one of the first and second heating chambers 100a, 100b to the microwave generation part is transmitted to the other heating chamber by a circulation type non-reciprocal circuit 118, so that generated power of the microwave generation part is substantially completely consumed upon heating of an article to be heated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Tomotaka Nobue, Kenji Yasui, Yoshiharu Oomori, Makoto Mihara
  • Patent number: 8420991
    Abstract: A microwave heating apparatus includes a microwave generation part (5) having a plurality of output parts, a heating chamber (4) to contain an object to be heated, a plurality of feeding parts (21a, 21b, 21c, 21d) supplying outputs of the plurality of output parts to the heating chamber, and a control part (6) controlling microwave radiation from the plurality of feeding parts to control an electromagnetic wave distribution in the heating chamber, in which a microwave is concentrated on the object to be heated put in the heating chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2013
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Mihara, Tomotaka Nobue, Kenji Yasui, Yoshiharu Oomori