Jo Aug 14, 2023

A research team led by Won Ju, a researcher at the Nano Physics Engineering Institute, has developed an effective reflector for microwave leakage prevention.

When applied to organisms, microwave changes the potential and charge on both sides of the cell membrane, thus impairing its function, destroying normal metabolic and physiological activities of the cell, and changing the quality of physiologically active substances. All these result in drying and sterilization of microorganisms.

Microwave is absorbed in large quantities into dielectrics such as wood and plastic or water-containing materials, but it is reflected on metal surfaces. When microwave is reflected from material, the material cannot be heated. Instead, the material is heated only by absorbing the energy of the microwave. It means that leakage of microwave leads to low efficiency of microwave equipment.

The reflector for preventing microwave leakage consists of a cuboid structure (except for two sides of the inlet and outlet) whose c-shaped reflective elements are arranged at regular intervals in columns in an indented way.

The width-depth-height ratio (a:b:c) in the reflector is 3:2.5:1.

When the microwave propagated inside the microwave device enters into the input/output channel region, it is reflected by the reflective elements so that the microwave does not come out but returns inside, which leads to significant reduction in the leakage of microwave.

He proposed a geometric structure of a leak suppressor that can effectively prevent microwave leakage in a microwave drying sterilizer, and carried out a simulation on microwave propagation inside the suppressor so as to determine its dimension and position.

As a result, the efficiency of a microwave drying sterilizer was improved and at the same time, production efficiency and quality of products were improved with less power.