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n interesting history on the development of the amazing microwave oven appeared in this publication in December 2005 by W. Hammack [1]. Subsequent letters in response have since appeared [2], [3]. Following the comments by Arnold M. Bucksbaum [3] this correspondence provides some additional information to his item Reducing Leakage from Microwave Oven Doors. He states that leakage occurs, and he raises a very important public safety issue. The extremely important health issue and its solution may not have been addressed adequately before,

COMSTOCK

Kiyo Tomiyasu
Kiyo Tomiyasu is retired, residing in Pomona, California. E-mail: k.tomiyasu@ieee.org.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2007.910948

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1527-3342/08/$25.002008 IEEE

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such as why it occurs with microwave ovens or how this could be circumvented. If the oven is totally enclosed in a complete metal chamber, there is no safety problem. But then a door is necessary to place food in the chamber. The first obvious approach would be to use a metallic gasket to seal the door to the chamber. Such a gasket can fatigue and fail. The gasket may become covered with food spillage and become ineffective. Clearly a noncontacting door or seal becomes essential for a safe and reliable microwave oven. An effective solution to this very important safety issue is a microwave choke to be discussed in this brief article.

I was approached by an oven manufacturer to provide some guidance on solving a microwave oven leakage problem that would be practical and meet very important health and safety issues.

Early Relevant Microwave Experiments

In 1949 my first task at Sperry Gyroscope Company was the development of a high-power rotary joint for a multichannel scanning radar system for the U.S. Navy. The principal objective was to mount a number of scanning high-power radars on a single mast to avoid reflections from nearby structures that otherwise would render the radars ineffective over small angular regions. An annular waveguide ring type of rotary joint was conceived to permit multiple radars stacked on a single mast. Each joint comprises two equal-diameter rectangular waveguide rings coupled together, one ring fastened to the mast, and the second ring supporting the radar to be rotated. The broad walls of the ring waveguides are oriented parallel to the mast axis. The conceptual rotary joint required circumferential cuts or slots along the narrow walls of each rectangular waveguide ring. It is well known that a cut or narrow slot at the center of a broad wall of a rectangular waveguide will not radiate, and this is commonly used for a sliding detector to measure the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of the internal fields. For the conceptual rotary joint, long circumferential slots on the other narrow wall were necessary. Since no data were found for this configuration, a simple slotted narrow-wall waveguide section was built for test. A high-power magnetron transmitter was available, and its operation could be confirmed by a rise in temperature in a high-power dummy load. This slotted waveguide test section was inserted between transmitter and dummy load. The total length of waveguide was about six feet. Near the middle of the slotted guide I stood with one hand on the dummy load to feel any rise in temperature. The open side of the slotted guide was facing me. The transmitter was switched on, and suddenly I felt heat on my abdomen. The magnetron was quickly switched off. I then wondered what caused microwave power to radiate from the slot. Maxwells field equations provided the answer. Power radiated from the slot because of the curl of the magnetic field bulging out

through the slot, and it produced a strong electric field across the slot and radiated. This led to the concept of numerous quarter-wavelength open-ended stubs fastened at and perpendicular to the slot to provide a short circuit across the slot. Instead of stubs in pairs, a single row of stubs facing a ground plane perpendicular to the slot was found to be just as effective. This configuration, called a serrated choke, is described in a U.S. patent [4] filed in 1950 and subsequently in a paper [5]. The performance of this configuration was confirmed by Gabriel [6].

Nov. 27, 1956

KIYO TOMIYASU

2,772,402

SERRATED CHOKE SYSTEM FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVEGUIDE Filed Nov. 22, 1950 31 28 29 27 22 24 25 Source 26 59 55 73 51 65 57 63 61 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 2 Load 23 21 53 68

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71 66 41 47 73 71 71 85 89 83 91 47 43 45 81 41 43 45

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Figure 1. Serrated choke for a slot on the narrow wall of a rectangular waveguide.

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This choke design was found to be economical to manufacture, very reliable, and very tolerant of the spacing between door and oven chamber.

Microwave Oven Leakage Problem

In the mid 1970s after the U.S. choke patent [4] expired, I was approached by an oven manufacturer to provide some guidance on solving a microwave oven leakage problem that would be practical and meet very important health and safety issues. I recalled my patent filed in 1950 and the subsequent paper published in 1956, both referenced above, to provide a noncontacting electrical seal between oven chamber and door. From the 1956 paper [5], a very good candidate for the seal was the choke mentioned above and shown in Figure 2. This greatly simplified choke design was recommended to the manufacturer, was built, and was tested for functionality. It exhibited the very low leakage sought to meet health and safety considerations. This choke design was found to be economical to manufacture, very reliable, and very tolerant of the spacing between door and oven chamber. The choke was adopted for oven manufacture since it addressed feasibility, safety issues, and economy. In current microwave ovens, the choke is hidden from view by an opaque plastic strip near the oven cavity periphery. The strip can be easily cleaned to remove food spillage that would inhibit choke effectiveness. In a conventional electric oven, a Calrod heating element carries high current, produces heat, and cooks food from the outside by thermal diffusion. Microwave cooking is different. It may not be common knowledge that heat in the food is generated from absorption of microwave power principally by water molecules in the food. Food with moisture can be heated but not the china plate under it. I have heard but not able to confirm that nearly all microwave ovens in the world use this choke design.

The Serrated Choke for a New Rotary Joint

The serrated choke provided the needed low impedance at the circumferential, narrow-wall slots of two coupled annular waveguide rings for a rotary joint. A U.S. patent of just the serrated choke was filed on 22 November 1950, and issued as Patent No. 2,772,402 six years later on 27 November 1956 [4]. A copy of the first page of the patent is shown Figure 1. A new rotary joint employing the serrated choke was constructed and operated successfully. It is described in [7].

Subsequent Development of the Serrated Choke

Subsequent to filing the U.S. choke patent in 1950, additional development work was undertaken to simplify the choke design and to facilitate its manufacture. This effort resulted in considerable simplicity of the choke by combining several serrations or tines with a single tab having a width and length approximately equal to one-quarter wavelength. This was called a rectangular cross-section choke. This choke faced an image plane to provide low impedance at the slot. This simplification is described in a paper titled Characteristics of a new serrated choke by Kiyo Tomiyasu and J.J. Bolus [5]. The simplified embodiment is shown in Figure 6 in that paper and shown here in Figure 2.

References
[1] W. Hammack, The greatest discovery since fire [microwave oven], IEEE Microwave Mag., vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 6270, Dec. 2005. [2] J. Osepchuck and W.S. Hammack, Microwave oven historyA heated exchange, IEEE Microwave Mag., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 1011, June 2006. [3] A.M. Bucksbaum, Reducing leakage from microwave oven doors, IEEE Microwave Mag., vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 110, Dec. 2006. [4] K. Tomiyasu, Serrated choke system for electromagnetic waveguide, U.S. Patent 2,772,402, Nov. 27, 1956. [5] K. Tomiyasu and J.J. Bolus, Characteristics of a new serrated choke, IRE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-4, pp. 3336, Jan. 1956. [6] W.F. Gabriel, Design note on a serrated choke, IRE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-7, p. 482, Oct. 1959. [7] K. Tomiyasu, A new annular waveguide rotary joint, Proc. IRE, vol. 44, pp. 548553, Apr. 1956.

Mounting Bracket Serrated Chokes Length Width 1 g 16 0.125

Figure 2. Several serrated chokes are combined to form a rectangular cross-section choke.

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