KR20210105208A - Induction heating type cooktop of determining material of heating object and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the present disclosure, provided is a method, in a method for determining a material of a heated object disposed in an induction heating type cooktop, comprising the steps of: storing, in advance, information on the temperature of a thin film coated on at least one of an upper end and a lower end of an upper plate of a cooktop and the correlation between an inductor component and a resistance component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film; determining estimated temperature information corresponding to an inductor component and a resistance component of an equivalent circuit formed by a thin film induction-heated by a working coil based on the information on the correlation; measuring the temperature of the thin film through a temperature sensor, to obtain measured temperature information; and determining whether a material of a heated object is a metal material or a non-metal material based on the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information. In addition, an induction heating type cooktop for performing the method may be provided.

Description

Induction heating type cooktop and method for determining the material of the object to be heated

The present disclosure relates to a cooktop capable of determining whether a container heated in an induction heating type cooktop is made of a metal material or a non-metal material, and a method thereof.

BACKGROUND ART Various types of cooking utensils are used to heat food at home or in a restaurant. Conventionally, gas stoves using gas as fuel have been widely used, but recently devices for heating an object to be heated, for example, a cooking vessel such as a pot, have been spread using electricity instead of gas.

A method of heating an object to be heated using electricity is largely divided into a resistance heating method and an induction heating method. The electrical resistance method is a method of heating an object to be heated by transferring heat generated when a current flows through a metal resistance wire or a non-metallic heating element such as silicon carbide to the object to be heated (eg, a cooking vessel) through radiation or conduction. In the induction heating method, when high-frequency power of a predetermined size is applied to the coil, an eddy current is generated in the object to be heated using a magnetic field generated around the coil to heat the object to be heated. am.

Recently, most of the induction heating methods are applied to cooktops.

However, in the case of a cooktop to which an induction heating method is applied, there is a limitation in that only a magnetic material can be heated. That is, when a non-magnetic material (eg, heat-resistant glass, ceramics, etc.) is disposed on the cooktop, there is a problem that the cooktop to which the induction heating method is applied cannot heat the object to be heated.

Accordingly, in order to overcome the limitations of the conventional induction heating type cooktop, various methods have been devised as follows.

First, a method of adding a heating plate that can be heated by induction heating between the cooktop and the non-magnetic material was devised. Referring to Japanese Patent Publication No. 5630495 (2014.10.17), a method of induction heating by adding a heating plate is disclosed.

However, in the case of the method, there is a problem that heating efficiency is lowered, as well as the time required to heat the material accommodated in the object to be heated is significantly increased than before.

As another method, a hybrid cooktop has been devised that heats a nonmagnetic material through a radiant heater to which an electric resistance method is applied, and heats a magnetic material through a working coil to which an induction heating method is applied. Referring to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-311058 (December 25, 2008), a configuration of a hybrid cooktop is disclosed.

However, in the case of the method, there was a problem that the output of the radiator heater was low and the heating efficiency was low, and there was an inconvenience that the user had to consider the material of the object to be heated when placing the object to be heated in the heating area.

Finally, an all metal cooktop has been devised that can heat all metal objects to be heated (ie non-magnetic metals and magnetic materials). Referring to U.S. Patent No. 6,770,857 (2004.08.03), a configuration of an all-metal cooktop is disclosed.

However, in the case of the method, there was a problem that the non-magnetic non-metal to be heated object could not be heated. In addition, when heating a non-magnetic metal object to be heated, there was a problem in that the heating efficiency was lower than that of the radiant heater technology and the material cost was high.

Accordingly, there is a growing need to develop a new technology that can overcome the limitations of the induction heating type cooktop.

Furthermore, in the prior art, the presence or absence of a metal container is determined using an electrical parameter formed by the container disposed on the upper plate.

In the present disclosure, considering that it is very difficult to determine the material of the container according to the conventional determination method in a cooktop in which a thin film, which is a separate object to be heated, is disposed between the container and the working coil, the induction heating thin film is disposed on the upper plate In the cooktop, it is also used to determine the material of the container, which is an object to be heated.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide an induction heating type cooktop capable of heating both a magnetic material and a non-magnetic material by disposing a separate induction heating body (ie, a thin film) other than a container to be heated by a user on an upper plate portion.

Objects that can be derived through the following examples are not limited to the objects mentioned above, and other objects and advantages not mentioned may be understood by the following description, and will be more clearly understood by the examples. will be. In addition, it will be easily understood that the objects and advantages that can be derived through the embodiments can be realized by the means and combinations thereof indicated in the claims.

A cover plate coupled to the upper end of the case according to the present disclosure and provided with an upper plate portion on which an object to be heated is disposed; a thin film coated on at least one of the top and bottom of the upper plate; a working coil provided inside the case for inductively heating at least one of the thin film and the object to be heated; a temperature sensor measuring the temperature of the thin film to obtain measured temperature information; a memory configured to store in advance information on a correlation between a temperature of the thin film and a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film; and determining the estimated temperature information corresponding to the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film induction heated by the working coil based on the information on the correlation, and the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is determined in advance An induction heating type cooktop may be provided, including an MCU configured to determine whether the object to be heated is a metal material or a non-metal material by determining whether it is included within a set range.

In the method for determining the material of an object to be heated disposed in an induction heating type cooktop according to the present disclosure, the temperature of the thin film coated on at least one of the upper and lower ends of the upper plate of the cooktop and the resistance of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film pre-storing information on the correlation between the component and the inductor component; determining estimated temperature information corresponding to a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by a thin film induction heated by a working coil based on the information on the correlation; obtaining measured temperature information by measuring the temperature of the thin film through a temperature sensor; A method may be provided, including determining whether a material of the object to be heated is a metal material or a non-metal material based on the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information.

In the cooktop of the induction heating method according to the present disclosure, it is possible to determine the material of the container even in a state in which the thin film to be induction heated is disposed on the upper plate, thereby securing use stability and ease of use.

The cooktop of the induction heating method according to the present disclosure can determine whether the container, which is the object to be heated, is a material corresponding to the heating mode set by the user, and accordingly, it is possible to set the heating mode adaptive to the material of the disposed container do.

The cooktop of the induction heating method according to the present disclosure can heat various magnetic and non-magnetic materials, and can heat the object to be heated regardless of the arrangement position and type of the object to be heated. Accordingly, since the user does not need to individually grasp the material of the object to be heated in order to heat the object, user convenience can be improved.

Since the cooktop of the induction heating method according to the present disclosure can directly or indirectly heat an object to be heated with the same heat source, there is no need to provide a separate heating plate or a radiator heater. Accordingly, it is possible to not only increase the heating efficiency but also reduce the material cost.

Specific effects that can be derived in addition to the above-described effects will be described together while describing specific details for carrying out the invention below.

1 is a view for explaining an induction heating type cooktop according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a view for explaining the components provided inside the case of the cooktop of the induction heating method shown in FIG. 1 .
3 and 4 are views illustrating a relationship between a thickness of a thin film and a skin depth according to an exemplary embodiment.
5 and 6 are diagrams for explaining a change in impedance between a thin film and an object to be heated according to the type of the object to be heated.
7 is a view for explaining an induction heating type cooktop according to another embodiment.
8 is a view for explaining the components provided inside the case of the cooktop of the induction heating method shown in FIG. 7 .
9 is a view for explaining a state in which an object to be heated is disposed on the cooktop of the induction heating method shown in FIG. 7 .
10 is a block diagram illustrating components included in an induction heating type cooktop for performing temperature estimation of a thin film according to an embodiment.
11A is a diagram illustrating a change in a resistance component of an equivalent circuit of a thin film according to a temperature of a thin film based on a thickness of a thin film and a driving frequency of a working coil, according to an exemplary embodiment;
11B is a diagram illustrating changes in output power, resonance current, and resistance and inductor components of an equivalent circuit according to temperature, according to an exemplary embodiment.
12A illustrates an input voltage for driving a working coil according to a driving frequency corresponding to an output set by a user and a fixed frequency used for temperature estimation, according to an exemplary embodiment.
13A is a diagram illustrating a method of performing temperature estimation according to an autonomous resonance method according to an exemplary embodiment.
13B is a diagram for explaining a characteristic of acquiring a resonance frequency and an attenuation width to acquire a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit in an autonomous resonance method for temperature estimation according to an embodiment;
14 is a block diagram of an induction heating type cooktop for determining whether a thin film is damaged by comparing a temperature estimated using an equivalent circuit formed by a thin film and a temperature measured through a temperature sensor according to an embodiment; do.
15 is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining whether a thin film is damaged by comparing estimated temperature information and measured temperature information by an induction heating type cooktop according to an embodiment.
16 is a flowchart illustrating a method for the cooktop to determine whether a thin film is damaged based on whether a difference between estimated temperature information and measured temperature information is included in a first range, according to an exemplary embodiment.
17 shows whether the thin film is damaged, the thin film is not damaged, but the heating efficiency is reduced, or the thin film is not damaged and the heating efficiency is It shows a flow chart for a method of determining to be normal.
18 is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining whether a thin film is damaged based on whether an object to be heated is disposed on an upper plate according to an exemplary embodiment.
19 is a flowchart of a method of determining a material of an object to be heated (HO) by comparing estimated temperature information and measured temperature information by an induction heating type cooktop according to an exemplary embodiment.
20 is a flowchart of a process in which the cooktop determines whether the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metallic material or a non-metallic material according to whether a difference between estimated temperature information and measured temperature information is included in a preset range according to an embodiment; show
21 is a process of determining the material of the object to be heated (HO) in a situation in which at least one of a thin film and an object to be heated (HO) is heated in a heating mode selected based on a preset condition according to an embodiment; Here's a flow chart on how to do it.
22 is a flowchart illustrating a method of changing a heating mode performed by the cooktop when the selected heating mode does not correspond to the material of the object HO to be heated, according to an embodiment.
23 is a view illustrating a method of controlling a heating mode by determining the material of the object to be heated (HO) through comparison of the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, and determining whether the object to be heated (HO) is disposed, according to an embodiment; A block diagram of an induction heating cooktop is shown.
24 is a view illustrating a method of controlling a heating mode by determining the material of the object to be heated (HO) through comparison of the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information and determining whether the object to be heated (H0) is disposed according to an embodiment; A flowchart for the method is shown.
25 is a flowchart illustrating a method of stopping heating by determining whether an object to be heated HO is disposed, according to an embodiment.
26 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling a heating mode based on arrangement information and a selected heating mode when the material of the object to be heated HO and the selected heating mode do not correspond to each other according to an embodiment.

Hereinafter, the embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings so that those of ordinary skill in the art can easily carry out the embodiments. The following embodiments may be implemented in various different forms and are not limited to the embodiments described herein.

For clear explanation, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted, and the same reference numerals are assigned to the same or similar elements throughout the specification. Further, some embodiments will be described in detail with reference to exemplary drawings. In adding reference numerals to components of each drawing, the same components may have the same reference numerals as much as possible even though they are indicated in different drawings. In addition, in describing the present disclosure, when it is determined that a detailed description of a related known configuration or function may obscure the gist of the embodiments, the detailed description may be omitted.

In describing the components of the embodiments, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), (b), etc. may be used. These terms are only for distinguishing the elements from other elements, and the essence, order, order, or number of the elements are not limited by the terms. When it is described as “connected”, “coupled” or “connected” between any components, any components may be directly connected or connected, and other components may be “interposed” between each component or each component It will be understood that may be “connected”, “coupled” or “connected” through other components.

In the present disclosure, terms such as “comprises”, “consists of” or “have” are intended to designate that a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification is present, but one It should be understood that it does not preclude the possibility of the presence or addition of or more other features or numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

In addition, in implementing the present disclosure, components may be subdivided for convenience of description, but these components may be implemented in one device or module, or one component may include multiple devices or modules. It may be implemented by being divided into .

Hereinafter, a cooktop of an induction heating method according to an embodiment will be described.

1 is a view for explaining an induction heating type cooktop according to an embodiment.

First, referring to FIG. 1 , an induction heating type cooktop 1 according to an embodiment includes a case 25 , a cover plate 20 , and working coils WC1 and WC2; that is, first and second working coils). , and thin films TL1 and TL2 (ie, first and second thin films).

Working coils WC1 and WC2 may be installed in the case 25 .

For reference, in the case 25, in addition to the working coils WC1 and WC2, various devices related to the driving of the working coil (eg, a power supply providing AC power, a rectifying unit for rectifying the AC power of the power supply into DC power, a rectifying unit Inverter unit that converts DC power rectified by the inverter into resonance current through a switching operation and provides it to the working coil, a control module that controls the operation of various devices in the induction heating type cooktop 1, and turns the working coil on or off relay or semiconductor switch, etc.) may be installed, but a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The cover plate 20 is coupled to the upper end of the case 25 , and an upper plate portion 15 on which an object to be heated (not shown) is disposed may be provided.

Specifically, the cover plate 20 may include a top plate portion 15 for placing an object to be heated, such as a cooking vessel.

Here, the upper plate part 15 may be made of, for example, a glass material (eg, ceramics glass).

In addition, the upper panel 15 may be provided with an input interface (not shown) that receives an input from a user and transmits the input to a control module (not shown) for the input interface. Of course, the input interface may be provided at a location other than the upper panel 15 .

For reference, the input interface is a module for inputting a desired heating intensity or operating time of the cooktop 1 of the induction heating method, and may be variously implemented as a physical button or a touch panel. In addition, the input interface may include, for example, a power button, a lock button, a power level adjustment button (+, -), a timer adjustment button (+, -), a charging mode button, and the like. In addition, the input interface may transmit the input received from the user to the control module for the input interface (not shown), and the control module for the input interface may transmit the input to the aforementioned control module (ie, the control module for the inverter). In addition, the above-described control module can control the operation of various devices (eg, a working coil) based on an input (ie, a user input) provided from the control module for the input interface, so that specific details thereof will be omitted. do.

Meanwhile, on the upper panel 15 , whether the working coils WC1 and WC2 are driven and the heating intensity (ie, thermal power) may be visually displayed in the shape of a crater. The shape of the crater may be indicated by an indicator (not shown) composed of a plurality of light emitting devices (eg, LEDs) provided in the case 25 .

The working coils WC1 and WC2 may be installed inside the case 25 to heat the object to be heated.

Specifically, the working coils WC1 and WC2 may be controlled to be driven by the aforementioned control module (not shown), and when the object to be heated is disposed on the upper plate 15 , the working coils WC1 and WC2 may be driven by the control module.

In addition, the working coils WC1 and WC2 can directly heat an object to be heated (ie, a magnetic body) that exhibits magnetism, and thin films (TL1, TL2) which will be described later for an object to be heated (ie, a non-magnetic body) that do not exhibit magnetism It can be heated indirectly through

In addition, the working coils WC1 and WC2 may heat an object to be heated by an induction heating method, and may be provided to overlap the thin films TL1 and TL2 in a vertical direction (ie, a vertical direction or a vertical direction).

For reference, although it is illustrated in FIG. 1 that two working coils WC1 and WC2 are installed in the case 25 , the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, one or three or more working coils may be installed in the case 25 , but for convenience of explanation, in one embodiment, two working coils WC1 and WC2 are installed in the case 25 as an example. listen and explain.

The thin films TL1 and TL2 may be coated on the upper plate portion 15 to heat a non-magnetic material among the objects to be heated.

Specifically, the thin films TL1 and TL2 may be coated on the upper surface or the lower surface of the upper plate portion 15, and the working coils WC1 and WC2 and the working coils WC1 and WC2 may be provided to overlap in the vertical direction (ie, in the vertical direction or in the vertical direction). can Accordingly, it is possible to heat the object to be heated regardless of the arrangement position and type of the object to be heated.

Also, the thin films TL1 and TL2 may have at least one of magnetic and non-magnetic properties (ie, magnetic, non-magnetic, or both magnetic and non-magnetic).

In addition, the thin films TL1 and TL2 may be made of, for example, a conductive material, and as shown in the figure, a plurality of rings of different diameters may be coated on the upper surface of the upper plate 15 in a repeating shape. , but is not limited thereto.

That is, the thin films TL1 and TL2 may be made of a material other than a conductive material, or may be coated on the upper plate 15 in a different shape. However, for convenience of explanation, in one embodiment, the thin films TL1 and TL2 are made of a conductive material, and a plurality of rings of different diameters are coated on the upper plate 15 in a repeated shape. do it with

For reference, although two thin films TL1 and TL2 are illustrated in FIG. 1 , the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, one or three or more thin films may be coated, but for convenience of description, in one embodiment, two thin films TL1 and TL2 are coated as an example.

However, since FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an exemplary arrangement relationship between components used in the present disclosure, the shape, number, and location of the components should not be construed as being limited as shown in FIG. 1 .

Further details of the thin films TL1 and TL2 will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining the components provided inside the case of the cooktop of the induction heating method shown in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the cooktop 1 of the induction heating method according to an embodiment may further include a heat insulating material 35 , a shielding plate 45 , a support member 50 , and a cooling fan 55 .

For reference, the components disposed around the first working coil WC1 and the components disposed around the second working coil WC2 in FIG. 1 are the same. Hereinafter, for convenience of description, the first The peripheral components (the first thin film TL1 , the heat insulating material 35 , the shielding plate 45 , the support member 50 , and the cooling fan 55 ) will be described centering on the working coil WC1 .

The heat insulating material 35 may be provided between the lower surface of the upper plate part 15 and the first working coil WC1 .

Specifically, the heat insulating material 35 may be mounted on the lower end of the cover plate 20 , that is, the upper plate part 15 , and the first working coil WC1 may be disposed below it.

The insulator 35 may block the transfer of heat generated while the first thin film TL1 or the object to be heated HO is heated by the driving of the first working coil WC1 from being transferred to the first working coil WC1. have.

That is, when the first thin film TL1 or the object to be heated HO is heated by electromagnetic induction of the first working coil WC1 , the heat of the first thin film TL1 or the object HO to be heated is transferred to the upper plate part 15 . ), and the heat of the upper plate part 15 is transferred to the first working coil WC1 again, so that the first working coil WC1 may be damaged.

In this way, the heat insulating material 35 blocks the heat transferred to the first working coil WC1, thereby preventing the first working coil WC1 from being damaged by heat, and furthermore, the first working coil WC1. It can also prevent the heating performance from falling.

For reference, although it is not an essential component, a spacer (not shown) may be installed between the first working coil WC1 and the heat insulating material 35 .

Specifically, the spacer may be inserted between the first working coil WC1 and the insulator 35 so that the first working coil WC1 and the insulator 35 do not directly contact each other. Accordingly, in the spacer, heat generated while the first thin film TL1 or the object to be heated HO is heated by the driving of the first working coil WC1 is transferred to the first working coil WC1 through the heat insulating material 35 . transmission can be blocked.

That is, since the spacer can partially share the role of the insulating material 35 , the thickness of the insulating material 35 can be minimized, thereby reducing the gap between the object to be heated HO and the first working coil WC1 . can be minimized

In addition, a plurality of spacers may be provided, and the plurality of spacers may be disposed to be spaced apart from each other between the first working coil WC1 and the heat insulating material 35 . Accordingly, the air sucked into the case 25 by the cooling fan 55 to be described later may be guided to the first working coil WC1 by the spacer.

That is, the spacer guides the air introduced into the case 25 by the cooling fan 55 to be properly transferred to the first working coil WC1, thereby improving the cooling efficiency of the first working coil WC1. can

The shielding plate 45 may be mounted on the lower end of the first working coil WC1 to block a magnetic field generated downward when the first working coil WC1 is driven.

Specifically, the shielding plate 45 may block a magnetic field generated downward when the first working coil WC1 is driven, and may be supported upward by the support member 50 .

The support member 50 may be installed between the lower surface of the shielding plate 45 and the lower surface of the case 25 to support the shielding plate 45 upward.

Specifically, the support member 50 may support the shielding plate 45 upwardly, thereby indirectly supporting the insulating material 35 and the first working coil WC1 upwardly, through which the insulating material 35 is It can be made to be in close contact with the upper plate (15).

As a result, the distance between the first working coil WC1 and the object to be heated HO may be constantly maintained.

For reference, the support member 50 may include, for example, an elastic body (eg, a spring) for supporting the shielding plate 45 upward, but is not limited thereto. In addition, since the support member 50 is not an essential component, it may be omitted from the induction heating type cooktop 1 .

The cooling fan 55 may be installed inside the case 25 to cool the first working coil WC1 .

Specifically, the cooling fan 55 may be controlled to be driven by the aforementioned control module, and may be installed on the sidewall of the case 25 . Of course, the cooling fan 55 may be installed at a location other than the sidewall of the case 25 , but in one embodiment, for convenience of explanation, the cooling fan 55 is installed on the sidewall of the case 25 . will be described with an example.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 2 , the cooling fan 55 sucks air from the outside of the case 25 and delivers it to the first working coil WC1 or sucks air (particularly, hot air) inside the case 25 . The case 25 may be discharged to the outside.

Through this, efficient cooling of the components inside the case 25 (particularly, the first working coil WC1) is possible.

Also, as described above, the air outside the case 25 delivered to the first working coil WC1 by the cooling fan 55 may be guided to the first working coil WC1 by the spacer. Accordingly, direct and efficient cooling of the first working coil WC1 is possible, so that durability of the first working coil WC1 can be improved (that is, durability improvement due to prevention of thermal damage).

As such, the cooktop 1 of the induction heating method according to an embodiment may have the above-described characteristics and configuration. Hereinafter, with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6 , the characteristics and configuration of the above-described thin film will be described in more detail. to be explained as

3 and 4 are diagrams illustrating a relationship between a thickness of a thin film and a skin depth according to an exemplary embodiment. 5 and 6 are diagrams for explaining a change in impedance between a thin film and an object to be heated according to the type of the object to be heated, according to an embodiment.

For reference, the first thin film TL1 and the second thin film TL2 have the same technical characteristics, and the thin films TL1 and TL2 may be coated on the upper surface or the lower surface of the upper plate part 15, in the following, For convenience of description, the first thin film TL1 coated on the upper surface of the upper plate part 15 will be described as an example.

The characteristics of the first thin film TL1 are as follows.

First, the first thin film TL1 may be made of a material having low relative permeability.

Specifically, since the relative magnetic permeability of the first thin film TL1 is low, the skin depth of the first thin film TL1 may be deep. Here, the skin depth means a current penetration depth from the surface of the material, and the relative magnetic permeability may be inversely proportional to the skin depth. Accordingly, as the relative magnetic permeability of the first thin film TL1 decreases, the skin depth of the first thin film TL1 increases.

Also, a skin depth of the first thin film TL1 may be greater than a thickness of the first thin film TL1 . That is, the first thin film TL1 has a thin thickness (eg, 0.1 μm to 1,000 μm), and the skin depth of the first thin film TL1 is deeper than the thickness of the first thin film TL1 , As the magnetic field generated by the working coil WC1 passes through the first thin film TL1 and is transmitted to the object HO to be heated, an eddy current may be induced in the object HO to be heated.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3 , when the skin depth of the first thin film TL1 is shallower than the thickness of the first thin film TL1 , the magnetic field generated by the first working coil WC1 is the object HO to be heated. ) is difficult to reach.

However, as in one embodiment (ie, as shown in FIG. 4 ), when the skin depth of the first thin film TL1 is greater than the thickness of the first thin film TL1 , the first working coil WC1 It can be seen that most of the generated magnetic field is transferred to the object to be heated (HO). That is, in an embodiment, since the skin depth of the first thin film TL1 is greater than the thickness of the first thin film TL1 , the magnetic field generated by the first working coil WC1 passes through the first thin film TL1 . Thus, most of the object to be heated (HO) is consumed, and through this, the object to be heated (HO) can be mainly heated.

Meanwhile, since the first thin film TL1 has a thin thickness as described above, it may have a resistance value that can be heated by the first working coil WC1 .

Specifically, the thickness of the first thin film TL1 may be in inverse proportion to a resistance value (ie, surface resistance value) of the first thin film TL1 . That is, as the thickness of the first thin film TL1 coated on the upper plate part 15 becomes thinner, the resistance value (ie, surface resistance) of the first thin film TL1 increases, and the first thin film TL1 is the upper plate part 15 . By being coated thinly, the properties can be changed with a load that can be heated.

For reference, the first thin film TL1 may have a thickness of, for example, 0.1 μm to 1,000 μm, but is not limited thereto.

The first thin film TL1 having such a characteristic is present to heat the non-magnetic material, and the impedance characteristic between the first thin film TL1 and the object HO to be heated is an impedance characteristic between the first thin film TL1 and the object to be heated HO disposed on the upper end of the upper plate 15 . It may change depending on whether the object HO is a magnetic substance or a non-magnetic substance.

First, the case where the object to be heated is a magnetic material will be described as follows.

2 and 5, when the magnetic object HO is disposed on the upper end of the upper plate 15 and the first working coil WC1 is driven, the magnetic object to be heated ( The resistance component R1 and the inductor component L1 of the HO) may form an equivalent circuit with the resistance component R2 and the inductor component L2 of the first thin film TL1 .

In this case, the impedance (i.e., impedance composed of R1 and L1) of the object to be heated that is magnetic in the equivalent circuit may be smaller than the impedance of the first thin film (TL1) (i.e., impedance composed of R2 and L2). have.

Accordingly, when the above-described equivalent circuit is formed, the magnitude of the eddy current I1 applied to the magnetically heated object HO may be greater than the magnitude of the eddy current I2 applied to the first thin film TL1. have. More specifically, most of the eddy current may be applied to the object HO to be heated, so that the object HO may be heated.

That is, when the object to be heated HO is a magnetic material, the above-described equivalent circuit is formed and most of the eddy current is applied to the object HO to be heated, and the first working coil WC1 is the object to be heated HO. It can be heated directly.

Of course, some eddy current is also applied to the first thin film TL1 to slightly heat the first thin film TL1 , and the object HO to be heated may be indirectly slightly heated by the first thin film TL1 . However, compared with the degree of direct heating of the object HO by the first working coil WC1, the degree of indirect heating of the object HO by the first thin film TL1 is significant. Can not.

On the other hand, the case where the object to be heated is a non-magnetic material is as follows.

2 and 6, when the non-magnetic to-be-heated object HO is disposed on the upper end of the upper plate 15 and the first working coil WC1 is driven, the non-magnetic to-be-heated object ( HO) does not have an impedance, and the first thin film TL1 may have an impedance. That is, the resistance component R and the inductor component L may exist only in the first thin film TL1 .

Accordingly, the eddy current I may be applied only to the first thin film TL1 , and the eddy current may not be applied to the object HO that is not magnetic. More specifically, the eddy current I may be applied only to the first thin film TL1 to heat the first thin film TL1 .

That is, when the object HO to be heated is a non-magnetic material, as described above, the eddy current I is applied to the first thin film TL1 to heat the first thin film TL1 , and thus the heating target that does not exhibit magnetism is heated. The object HO may be indirectly heated by the first thin film TL1 heated by the first working coil WC1 .

In summary, the object HO to be heated may be directly or indirectly heated by one heat source called the first working coil WC1 regardless of whether the object HO is a magnetic material or a non-magnetic material. That is, when the object to be heated HO is a magnetic material, the first working coil WC1 directly heats the object HO, and when the object HO to be heated is a non-magnetic material, the first working coil WC1 The first thin film TL1 heated by ) may indirectly heat the object HO to be heated.

As described above, the cooktop 1 of the induction heating method according to an embodiment can heat both a magnetic material and a non-magnetic material, so that the object to be heated can be heated regardless of the arrangement position and type of the object to be heated. have. Accordingly, the user may place the object to be heated on any heating area on the upper plate without having to determine whether the object to be heated is a magnetic material or a non-magnetic material, and thus ease of use may be improved.

In addition, the cooktop 1 of the induction heating method according to an embodiment can directly or indirectly heat an object to be heated with the same heat source, so there is no need to provide a separate heating plate or a radiator heater. Accordingly, it is possible to not only increase the heating efficiency but also reduce the material cost.

Hereinafter, a cooktop of an induction heating method according to another embodiment will be described.

7 is a view for explaining an induction heating type cooktop according to another embodiment. 8 is a view for explaining the components provided inside the case of the cooktop of the induction heating method shown in FIG. 7 . 9 is a view for explaining a state in which an object to be heated is disposed on the cooktop of the induction heating method shown in FIG. 7 .

For reference, the cooktop 2 of the induction heating method according to another embodiment is the same as the cooktop 1 of the induction heating method of FIG. 1 except for some components and effects, and the differences will be mainly described.

7 and 8 , the induction heating type cooktop 2 according to another embodiment may be a zone-free type cooktop, unlike the induction heating type cooktop 1 of FIG. 1 .

Specifically, the induction heating type cooktop 2 includes a case 25 , a cover plate 20 , a plurality of thin films (TLG), an insulating material 35 , a plurality of working coils (WCG), a shielding plate 45 , and a support. It may include a member 50, a cooling fan (not shown), a spacer (not shown), and a control module (not shown).

Here, the plurality of thin films TLG and the plurality of working coils WCG may overlap each other in the vertical direction, and may be disposed to correspond to each other one-to-one. Of course, the plurality of thin films (TLG) and the plurality of working coils (WCG) may not correspond to one-to-one, but may correspond to many-to-one or one-to-many, but for convenience of explanation, another embodiment In the description, an example in which the plurality of thin films TLG and the plurality of working coils WCG are arranged to correspond one-to-one will be described as an example.

That is, the cooktop 2 of the induction heating method is a zone-free type cooktop including a plurality of thin films (TLG) and a plurality of working coils (WCG), and a plurality of working coils (WCG) for one object to be heated (HO). ) may be heated simultaneously with some or all of the ), or may be simultaneously heated with some or all of the plurality of thin films (TLG). Of course, the object HO to be heated may be heated using some or all of the plurality of working coils WCG and some or all of the plurality of thin films TLG.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, in the region (eg, the upper plate portion 15 region) in which the plurality of working coils (WCG in FIG. 8) and the plurality of thin films (TLG) exist, the object to be heated (HO1, It is possible to heat the objects to be heated (HO1, HO2) regardless of the size, location, and type of HO2).

In the cooktop 1 or 2 in which the thin film TL disposed on the upper plate 15 is directly induction heated as described above, when the thin film TL having a thin thickness is heated to about 600° C. or higher due to induction heating, absolutely In addition to the temperature range in which the temperature rises, the error may be very large when measuring the temperature through a conventional temperature sensor (eg thermistor) that requires a delay time for accurate temperature measurement because the temperature increase rate is very fast. Parts may be damaged. Therefore, in order to measure the temperature of the inductively heated thin film TL, a temperature measurement method is required in a manner different from that of the prior art. In particular, when the object to be heated HO disposed on the upper plate 15 is made of a non-magnetic material, the object to be heated HO is not inductively heated and the thin film TL is inductively heated to conduct heat to the object HO. Since heating is performed through the

10 is a block diagram illustrating components included in the cooktop 1000 of an induction heating method for performing temperature estimation of a thin film according to an embodiment.

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1000 of the induction heating method used in the description from FIG. 10 may correspond to the cooktop 1 of the induction heating method used in the various embodiments described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 9. have. Accordingly, the components of the cooktop 1000 of the induction heating method not shown in FIG. 10 may selectively include components of the cooktop 1 within the range supported through FIGS. 1 to 9 and the description thereof. can be understood as Furthermore, among the configurations shown in FIG. 10 , a configuration corresponding to the configuration of FIGS. 1 to 9 may have features corresponding to the features of the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 9 .

Referring to FIG. 10 , the induction heating type cooktop 1000 includes a cover plate 1010 coupled to an upper end of a case and provided with an upper plate on which an object to be heated is disposed; a thin film 1020 coated on at least one of the top and bottom of the upper plate 15; a working coil 1050 provided inside the case for inductively heating the thin film 1020; a memory 1030 configured to store in advance information on the correlation between the temperature of the thin film 1020 and the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1020; and estimated temperature information corresponding to the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1020 inductively heated by the working coil 1050 based on the information on the correlation as the current temperature of the thin film 1020 MCU 1040 configured to determine.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the thin film 1020 may be disposed on the upper end of the upper plate part 15 , and the additional metal film ML may be disposed on the lower end of the upper plate part 15 . According to an exemplary embodiment, the additional metal layer ML may be disposed on the lower end of the upper plate part 15 and the upper end of the heat insulating material 35 . According to an embodiment, the thin film 1020 may be disposed on the upper plate portion 15 included in the cover plate 1010 to contact the object HO to be heated.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the thin film 1020 may be disposed at the lower end of the cover plate 1010 instead of the thin film 1020 disposed on the upper end of the upper plate portion 15 . According to an embodiment, the thin film 1020 may be in contact with or coated on the lower end of the cover plate 1010 , or may form a part of the lower surface of the cover plate 1010 in order to reduce a gap due to the thin film 1020 . . That is, in this case, the thin film 1020 may be disposed on the lower surface of the cover plate 1010 in various ways without being exposed to the outside because it is not disposed on the upper surface of the upper plate part 15 .

However, since FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining the relationship of which components are used in the cooktop of the induction heating method, the embodiments should not be construed as being limited to the location, number, and inclusion relationship between the blocks of FIG. 10 .

According to an embodiment, the memory 1030 may be configured to store in advance information on the correlation between the temperature of the thin film 1020 and the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1020 , such The information on the correlation may be stored at least before the current temperature of the thin film 1020 is determined by the MCU 1040 . According to an embodiment, the correlation information is based on the thickness of the thin film 1020 and the frequency at which the working coil 1050 is driven by using at least one of a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit for each temperature of the thin film 1020 . It may be data organized by .

According to an embodiment, the resistance component and the inductor component included in the correlation information stored in advance may be calculated by calculating the resistance component and the inductor component based on the values of the output power and the resonance current. Since the value of the capacitance on the circuit of the cooktop 1000 configured in advance according to an embodiment is constant, the output power at the actual heating temperature of the thin film 1020 inductively heated by the working coil 1050 in operation and If the resonance current is known, the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit can be calculated.

11A illustrates a change in the resistance component of the equivalent circuit of the thin film 1020 according to the temperature change of the thin film 1020 based on the thickness of the thin film 1020 and the frequency at which the working coil 1050 is driven, according to an embodiment. It is a drawing showing

Referring to FIG. 11A , a change pattern of the resistive component of the equivalent circuit as the temperature increases according to the thickness of the thin film 1020 is determined. For example, when the thickness of the thin film 1020 is 1 μm, the resistive component tends to decrease as the temperature of the thin film 1020 increases. According to another example, when the thickness of the thin film 1020 is 10 μm, the thickness of the thin film 1020 is As the temperature increases, the resistance component may tend to increase. According to another example, when the thickness of the thin film 1020 is 6 μm, as the temperature of the thin film 1020 increases, the resistive component increases and then decreases.

According to an embodiment, the size of the inductor component of the equivalent circuit may increase as the temperature of the thin film 1020 increases.

However, the change pattern of the resistance component may vary depending on the driving frequency of the working coil 1050 and the material or shape of the thin film 1020 . For example, the resistance component shown in FIG. 11A may be a case in which the driving frequency of the working coil 1050 is 40 kHz, and the resistance component of the equivalent circuit may vary in the material and shape of the thin film 1020 . Accordingly, the resistance component of the equivalent circuit used in various embodiments of the present application need not be interpreted as being limited to the contents shown in FIG. 11A .

According to an embodiment, the thin film 1020 of the cooktop 1000 of the induction heating method may be designed with a predetermined form factor, and the memory 1030 may have such a form factor (ie, the thickness of the thin film 1020 ). ) may be pre-stored information on the correlation corresponding to the . According to an embodiment, the memory 1030 may store information on correlations corresponding to various form factors in advance, and the MCU 1040 obtains information indicating the form factor of the cooktop 1000 of the induction heating method. Thus, information on correlation corresponding to the corresponding form factor can be selected and used in the process of estimating the temperature.

11B is a diagram illustrating changes in output power, a resonance current, and a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit according to temperature, according to an exemplary embodiment. According to an embodiment, since the data shown in FIG. 11B shows a change in a predetermined form factor and a frequency at which the working coil 1050 is driven in a predetermined state, the features of various embodiments of the present application will be interpreted as being limited thereto. No need. According to an embodiment, the data shown in FIG. 11B may be data obtained when the thickness of the thin film 1020 is 6 μm and the frequency at which the working coil 1050 is driven is 60 kHz.

Referring to FIG. 11B , it can be seen that the output power changes according to the temperature of the thin film 1020 . According to an embodiment, as the temperature of the thin film 1020 increases, the output power tends to decrease, where the output power is in the resistance component and inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the working coil 1050 and the thin film 1020. can be determined accordingly.

Referring to FIG. 11B , it can be seen that the value of the resonance current flowing through the working coil 1050 changes according to the temperature of the thin film 1020 . According to an embodiment, as the temperature of the thin film 1020 increases, the resonance current also tends to decrease. According to an embodiment, since the capacitance value of the capacitor in the cooktop 1000 is in a predetermined state, the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the working coil 1050 and the thin film 1020 at a constant frequency are measured It can be known based on the output power and the resonance current value.

For example, the output power P in the equivalent circuit by the working coil 1050 and the thin film 1020 may be calculated through Equation 1 below.

)에 의해

값이 결정된다. According to an embodiment, V _in represents an input power supply, and R _eq represents a resistance component of an equivalent circuit. According to an embodiment, since the capacitor that can be checked on the inverter circuit of the cooktop 1000 is predetermined, the impedance angle (

) by

The value is determined.

로 결정되며, 이에 따라 현재 워킹 코일(1050)의 구동 주파수가 f_s일 때 워킹 코일(1050) 및 박막(1020)에 의하여 형성된 등가 회로에서의 출력 전력 (P)은 아래 수학식 2와 같이 계산될 수 있다.According to an embodiment, the resonant frequency f _res is determined by the inductor component and the capacitor.

is determined, and accordingly, when the driving frequency of the current working coil 1050 is f _s , the output power P in the equivalent circuit formed by the working coil 1050 and the thin film 1020 is calculated as in Equation 2 below. can be

Accordingly, the MCU 1040 may calculate the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit based on the output power and the resonance current measured for each temperature. According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 measures the output power and the resonance current of the current cooktop 1000, determines the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit based on this, and then stores it in the memory 1030 for each temperature. The temperature of the thin film 1020 may be estimated by comparing the resistance component and the inductor component.

12A illustrates an input voltage for operating the working coil 1050 according to a driving frequency corresponding to an output set by a user and a fixed frequency used for temperature estimation, according to an exemplary embodiment.

According to an exemplary embodiment, a user may set an output for heating the object HO to be heated using the cooktop 1000 , and based on a signal input through this setting process, the MCU 1040 generates the working coil 1050 ) can be set. That is, the driving frequency may vary according to an output set by a user, and is a variable frequency that may be changed according to an operating environment of the cooktop 1000 .

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 estimates the temperature of the thin film 1020 using a preset fixed frequency for estimating the temperature of the thin film 1020 separately from the driving frequency corresponding to the output set by the user. Thus, it can be determined as the current temperature. According to an embodiment, there may be at least one type of fixed frequency.

Hereinafter, a driving frequency corresponding to an output set by a user is referred to as a first frequency, and a preset fixed frequency for estimating the temperature of the thin film 1020 is referred to as a second frequency.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may control the working coil 1050 to be driven at a first frequency, and may control the working coil 1050 driven at the first frequency to be driven at a second frequency. When the working coil 1050 is controlled to be driven at the second frequency, a resistance component and an inductor component corresponding to the estimated temperature information may be determined based on the second frequency. That is, the MCU 1040 controls the working coil 1050 to operate at a predetermined second frequency in a situation in which the working coil 1050 is being driven with the output set by the user (ie, at the first frequency), and the corresponding frequency The temperature of the thin film 1020 may be estimated based on the resistance component and the inductor component calculated in the course of operation.

According to an embodiment, the type of the second frequency may be plural. According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may select one of a plurality of second frequencies according to a predetermined condition and use it as the second frequency for estimating the temperature of the thin film 1020 .

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may estimate the temperature of the thin film 1020 by driving each of a plurality of predetermined second frequencies. In this case, the temperature estimation result using only one of the plurality of second frequencies You may get more relatively accurate results.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may control the working coil 1050 to operate at least one cycle or more at any one of the plurality of second frequencies. According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may control the working coil 1050 to continuously operate at a certain second frequency for one cycle or more and then continuously operate for one cycle or more at a different second frequency. According to another embodiment, the MCU 1040 operates at a certain second frequency for one cycle or more, then operates at the first frequency again, and then operates the working coil 1050 to operate at a different second frequency for one cycle or more. can be controlled

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may control the working coil 1050 so that the working coil 1050 driven at the first frequency operates at the second frequency, and changes the frequency from the first frequency to the second frequency. The operation may be performed periodically according to a predetermined period during the operation of the working coil 1050 . According to an embodiment, the predetermined period may be an integer multiple (eg, twice) of the period of the input voltage in a state in which the cooktop 1000 is driven at the first frequency.

Referring to FIG. 12A , according to an embodiment, the MCU 1020 converts the frequency to the second frequency after two cycles 1210a and 1212a for the input voltage in a state driven at the first frequency arrive. The working coil 1050 may be operated at the second frequency for at least one period 1220a. According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may calculate the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit based on the output power and the resonance current while the working coil 1050 is driven at the second frequency, and thus the second frequency The temperature of the thin film 1020 may be estimated according to the estimated temperature information corresponding to the resistance component and the inductor component calculated based on . The MCU 1040 may determine the estimated temperature as the current temperature of the thin film 1020 .

After determining the temperature estimated at the second frequency as the current temperature according to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 changes the frequency of the working coil 1050 from the second frequency back to the first frequency so that the working coil 1050 is again It can be controlled to operate at the first frequency according to the output set by the user. According to an embodiment, after the working coil 1050 is operated for at least one cycle 1220a with the second frequency, the MCU 1040 returns to the first frequency for two cycles 1210b and 1212b for the input voltage. The working coil 1050 may be operated, and after the frequency is converted to the second frequency, the working coil 1050 may be operated at the second frequency for at least one period 1220b.

12B illustrates an input voltage for operating the working coil 1050 according to a driving frequency corresponding to an output set by a user and a plurality of fixed frequencies used for temperature estimation, according to an exemplary embodiment.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may estimate the temperature while changing the second frequency to one of the plurality of second frequencies. That is, since the second frequency is selected from one of a plurality of fixed frequencies according to a predetermined condition, when a condition different from the previous period is satisfied in the current period, the second frequency may be set to a fixed frequency different from that in the previous period. have. According to an embodiment, when the working coil 1050 operates at the current second frequency for a predetermined period, the MCU 1040 operates at a different second frequency while estimating the temperature of the thin film 1020 . can be controlled.

Referring to FIG. 12B , according to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 controls the working coil 1050 to operate at the first frequency for predetermined periods 1230a and 1232a, and then at the second frequency for a predetermined period 1240a. to operate, and the current temperature of the thin film 1020 can be estimated when operating at the second frequency. The period 1235a operating at the first frequency and the second frequency may be repeated a predetermined number of times.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1040 may change the second frequency of the working coil 1050 for temperature estimation after the operation period 1235a elapses a predetermined number of times. Referring to FIG. 12B , the MCU 1040 causes the working coil 1050 to operate for a predetermined period 1235a at the current second frequency, and then operates for a predetermined period 1240b with the changed second frequency. can be estimated. MCU 1040 may control the working coil 1050 to operate at the first frequency during the predetermined period 1230b and 1232b during the predetermined period 1240b and at the second frequency during the predetermined period 1240b. have.

According to an embodiment, the predetermined periods 1235a and 1235 in which the working coil 1050 operates at the first frequency and the second frequency may be the same or different from each other. According to an embodiment, after a predetermined period 1235b including a period of operation with the changed second frequency has elapsed, the MCU 1040 operates again with the second frequency before the change for a predetermined period 1235a or Alternatively, the temperature may be estimated by changing to another second frequency.

According to an embodiment, the average output while operating at the first frequency and the second frequency may correspond to an output set by a user. That is, the MCU 1040 may adjust the output while operating at the first frequency and the second frequency in order to compensate for the instantaneous power change by the frequency change from the first frequency to the second frequency. For example, when the second frequency is lower than the first frequency, the instantaneous power while operating at the second frequency may be lower than the instantaneous power while operating at the first frequency, so that the MCU 1040 performs the first frequency and The value of the first frequency may be adjusted so that the average power while operating at the second frequency corresponds to the output set by the user (that is, it may be adjusted to a higher frequency than the frequency corresponding to the output set by the user). .

According to an embodiment, the first frequency and the second frequency are only different in that they are variable according to the output set by the user or are one of a plurality of predetermined frequencies, and the values of the frequencies themselves should not be interpreted to be different. Can not be done.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the first frequency and the second frequency may be different, and accordingly, the MCU 1040 performs a period (eg, 1210a) consisting of a period in which the first frequency is operated to a period in which the second frequency is operated. , 1212a, 1220a) may set the first frequency so that the output corresponds to the output set by the user.

The temperature estimation process in the above-described embodiment may be performed periodically while the working coil 1050 is operated at a first frequency according to an output set by a user, and the second frequency is at least one predetermined frequency other than zero. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a situation such as generation of a humming sound due to the operation being stopped in the middle of the working coil 1050 being operated.

13A is a diagram illustrating a method of performing temperature estimation according to an autonomous resonance method according to an exemplary embodiment.

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1000 may include gate elements 1310 and 1312 , a gate driver 1320 , an MCU 1330 , a comparator 1340 , a working coil 1350 , and a switching controller 1360 . .

According to an embodiment, the gate driver 1320 may turn on/off the gate devices 1310 and 1312 based on a control signal from the switching controller 1360 . The comparator 1340 may measure the resonance current flowing through the working coil 1350 , and may generate and output a pulse wave according to whether the measured resonance current is greater than a predetermined reference current value. The switching control unit 1360 receiving the output of the comparator 1340 may calculate a resonance frequency and an attenuation width. According to an embodiment, the MCU 1350 and the switching control unit 1360 may be understood as a single configuration, and accordingly, the above-described operation of the switching control unit 1360 may be performed by the MCU 1350 .

Referring to FIG. 13A , the cooktop 1000 may provide a resonance current to the working coil 1350 based on a switching operation. According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1000 performs temperature measurement in a driving process using a fixed frequency (ie, a second frequency) in a situation where the working coil 1350 is driven with an output corresponding to an output input by a user. In addition, when a predetermined current flows through the working coil 1350, it transitions to an autonomous resonance state and measures the resonance frequency and attenuation width of the resonance current to determine the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the cooktop 1000 includes a gate element ( 1310 and 1312 may be changed from the standby state to the autonomous resonance state through the switching operation. Referring to FIG. 13A , in the standby state, the upper gate 1310 of the gate devices 1310 and 1312 may be in an off state and the lower gate 1312 may be in an on state.

According to an embodiment, the resonance current has a predetermined current value in the standby state, and the MCU 1330 may control the gate driver 1320 to perform a switching operation of the gate elements 1310 and 1312 . According to an embodiment, when a switching operation is started (1st phase), the lower gate 1312 may be changed to an off state and the upper gate 1310 may be changed to an on state. When the upper gate 1310 is changed to an on state and the lower gate 1312 is changed to an off state, an amount of charge may be charged in the resonance capacitor according to a current flowing through the upper gate 1310 .

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1330 controls the gate driver 1320 to perform a switching operation of the gate elements 1310 and 1312 so that the upper gate 1310, which was in the on state, is changed back to the off state, and the The lower gate 1312 changes back to the on state (2nd phase). Accordingly, an autonomous resonance state occurs within a closed circuit composed of the resonance capacitor and the working coil 1350 charged in the 1st phase, and the cooktop 1000 may measure the current flowing to the working coil 1350 in the autonomous resonance state. The cooktop 1000 may calculate the inductor component and the resistance component based on the current in the autonomous resonance state, and thus the current temperature of the thin film 1020 may be determined.

13B is a diagram for explaining a characteristic of acquiring a resonance frequency and an attenuation width to acquire a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit in an autonomous resonance method for temperature estimation according to an embodiment;

Referring to FIG. 13B , according to an exemplary embodiment, the comparator 1340 may determine an attenuation width based on a decrease trend of the maximum value of the resonance current, and thus determine a resistance component, and based on the repetition period of the resonance current The resonant frequency can be determined and the inductor component can be determined accordingly.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1360 determines what information about the correlation stored in advance corresponding to the resistance component and the inductor component determined based on the resonance frequency and the attenuation width is determined based on the information on the correlation. The estimated temperature information may be determined as the current temperature of the thin film 1020 .

14 is a block diagram of an induction heating type cooktop for determining whether a thin film is damaged by comparing a temperature estimated using an equivalent circuit formed by a thin film and a temperature measured through a temperature sensor according to an embodiment; do. Among the components included in the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method of FIG. 14 , the cover plate 1410 , the thin film 1420 , the memory 1430 , the MCU 1440 and the working coil 1450 are the cooktops of the induction heating method of FIG. 10 . At 1000 , the cover plate 1010 , the thin film 1020 , the memory 1030 , and the MCU 1040 may have a configuration corresponding to the working coil 1050 .

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method may further include a temperature sensor 1460 , and accordingly, the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method may measure the temperature of the thin film 1420 .

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 of the induction heating type cooktop 1400 includes the temperature of the thin film 1420 stored in advance in the memory 1430 and the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 and Whether or not the thin film 1420 is damaged may be determined using information on the correlation of . According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 operates the working coil 1450 , and is formed by the thin film 1420 that is inductively heated by the working coil 1450 based on the correlation information stored in the memory 1430 . It is possible to determine the estimated temperature information corresponding to the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit. The MCU 1440 may determine whether the thin film 1420 is damaged by comparing the determined estimated temperature information with the measured temperature information indicating the temperature of the thin film 1420 actually measured by the temperature sensor 1460 .

According to an embodiment, the information on the correlation between the temperature of the thin film 1420 stored in advance in the memory 1430 and the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 is the thin film in an undamaged state. 1420 may include information about the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed for each heated temperature. That is, the estimated temperature estimated based on the correlation information stored in the memory 1430 may be substantially the same as the result of measuring the actual temperature of the thin film 1420 or may show a difference within a predetermined range. According to an embodiment, the method in which the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method estimates the temperature of the thin film 1420 may be implemented through the various embodiments described above with reference to FIGS. 10 to 13B .

15 is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining whether a thin film is damaged by comparing estimated temperature information and measured temperature information by the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method according to an embodiment.

In step S1510, the cooktop 1400 may store information on the correlation between the temperature of the thin film 1420 and the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film in advance in the memory 1430 according to an embodiment. . According to an embodiment, the time at which the memory 1430 stores the information on the correlation between the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit may be any point in the step S1540 of comparing the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, For convenience of explanation, the description will be made on the premise that the step S1510 is performed. The cooktop 1400 may store correlation information in the memory 1430 before the process of comparing the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, and must be done before the process of comparing the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information. It is not necessary to process the data to be stored through a predetermined control, communication, and storage process. For example, the correlation information stored in the memory 1430 of the cooktop 1400 may be information stored in the memory 1430 as factory initial setting data, or before the process of comparing the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information. Information received through an external server at an arbitrary point in time may be stored in the memory 1430 .

In step S1520, the cooktop 1400 is configured by an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 inductively heated by the working coil 1450 based on the correlation information stored in advance in step S1510 according to an embodiment. Estimated temperature information corresponding to the inductor component may be determined. According to an embodiment, as the working coil 1450 operates, the thin film 1420 may be inductively heated, and as the thin film 1420 is inductively heated, a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 This can change. The MCU 1440 may calculate the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit through the output power and the resonance current of the working coil 1450, and based on the information about the correlation stored in advance, the resistance component and the inductor component Corresponding estimated temperature information may be determined. The estimated temperature information determined by the MCU 1440 is an estimated value, not a temperature actually measured by the temperature sensor 1460 .

In step S1530 , the cooktop 1400 may obtain measured temperature information by measuring the temperature of the thin film 1420 inductively heated by the working coil 1450 using the temperature sensor 1460 according to an embodiment.

In operation S1540, the cooktop 1400 may determine whether the thin film 1420 is damaged by comparing the estimated temperature information determined in operation S1520 with the measured temperature information obtained in operation S1530 according to an exemplary embodiment. According to an embodiment, when the thin film 1420 is not damaged, the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information should not be the same or different from each other. However, when the thin film 1420 is damaged, the corresponding estimated temperature information itself changes abruptly due to a change in the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420, so the MCU 1440 is the thin film 1420. Whether or not the thin film 1420 is damaged may be determined based on the difference between the actual temperature and the estimated temperature according to the damage.

16 is a flowchart illustrating a method for the cooktop 1400 to determine whether the thin film 1420 is damaged based on whether a difference between estimated temperature information and measured temperature information is included in a first range, according to an embodiment.

The features of steps S1610, S1620, and S1630 of FIG. 16 may be the same or very similar to the features of steps S1510, S1520, and S1530 of FIG. 15, respectively, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In step S1640, the cooktop 1400 compares the estimated temperature information determined in step S1620 with the measured temperature information obtained in step S1630 according to an embodiment, and the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is set in a first range (eg, For example, it may be determined whether or not it is included in the preset value TH1 or less). That is, the MCU 1440 calculates the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, and determines whether the calculated difference is large enough not to be included in the preset first range or is insignificant enough to be included in the preset first range. It is possible to determine whether 1420 is damaged.

In operation S1650 , the MCU 1440 may determine that the thin film 1420 is damaged when the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is not included in a preset first range according to an embodiment. According to an embodiment, when the difference D between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is not included in a preset first range (eg, when D>TH1), it may be determined that the thin film 1420 is damaged. .

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 may further include an output unit (not shown) capable of outputting at least one of visual information and audible information, and the MCU 1440 includes such an output unit (not shown). can be controlled to output arbitrary information. According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the thin film 1420 is damaged in step S1650, the MCU 1440 provides visual information and/or auditory information indicating that the thin film 1420 is damaged through an output unit (not shown) in step S1660. can be printed out. Through this output, the user may recognize that the current thin film 1420 is in a damaged state.

In step S1652 , the MCU 1440 may determine that the thin film 1420 is not damaged when the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included in a preset first range according to an embodiment. According to an embodiment, when the difference D between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is not included in a preset first range (eg, when D≤TH1), it is determined that the thin film 1420 is not damaged. can

17 shows whether the thin film 1420 is damaged or the thin film 1420 is not damaged but the heating efficiency is reduced based on the first range and the second range preset in the cooktop 1400 according to an embodiment. It shows a flow chart for how to determine that the membrane 1420 is not damaged and the heating efficiency is normal.

The characteristics for step S1710, step S1720, step S1730, step S1740 and step S1742 of FIG. 17 may be the same or very similar to the features for step S1610, step S1620, step S1630, step S1640 and step S1650 of FIG. 16, respectively. A detailed description will be omitted.

When it is determined in step S1740 that the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included in the preset first range, the MCU 1440 sets the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information in step S1750 according to an embodiment. It can be determined whether it is included in the second range. According to an exemplary embodiment, the second range may be a range preset to correspond to a partial range of the first range. According to an embodiment, the second range is a biased range (for example, a range less than TH1 and greater than or equal to TH2 (TH2≦x) within a preset first range (for example, a range less than or equal to TH1 (x≦TH1)). ≤ TH1)) may be preset. That is, the MCU 1440 determines whether the difference D between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included in a range divided by various criteria (eg, 0≤D<TH2; TH2≤D≤TH1; D>TH1). can decide

According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included in the preset second range (eg, TH2≤D≤TH1), the MCU 1440 performs S1752 according to an embodiment. In the step, it may be determined that the heating efficiency of the thin film 1420 is in a reduced state. In this case, the thin film 1420 is completely damaged and not substantially damaged to the extent that induction heating cannot be performed, but the thin film 1420 is partially damaged so that the heating efficiency is lower than a preset level (for example, compared to the case where normal induction heating is performed) , may be determined as falling to X% or less of the output when normally induction heating is performed).

According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is not included in the preset second range (eg, 0≤D<TH2), the MCU 1440 according to an embodiment In step S1754, it may be determined that the thin film 1420 is not damaged and the heating efficiency is normal.

According to an embodiment, when the cooktop 1400 controls the output unit (not shown), it is determined that the thin film 1420 is damaged in step S1742 or that the heating efficiency of the thin film 1420 is reduced in step S1752. , each state can be output. Through this, the user can recognize whether the thin film 1420 is damaged or the heating efficiency is reduced.

According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the thin film 1420 is damaged, the MCU 1440 controls the working coil 1420 so that the working coil 1420 is not operated for heating the non-metallic object to be heated (HO). can Considering that the cooktop 1440 may malfunction when heating the non-metallic object HO in a state in which the thin film 1420 is damaged, safety is ensured by controlling the working coil 1420 not to operate in this case. can be In addition, by controlling the working coil 1420 not to be operated, the user may mistakenly believe that the non-metallic object HO is being heated even though the non-metallic object HO is not substantially heated due to damage to the thin film 1420 is prevented. And this can ensure the reliability of using the cooktop.

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 may determine whether the object to be heated HO disposed on the upper plate 15 is made of a metallic material or a non-metallic material. According to an embodiment, when the object to be heated is a non-metal material and it is determined that the thin film 1420 is damaged, the MCU 1440 does not operate the working coil 1420 for heating the object to be heated (HO) made of a non-metal material. It is possible to control the working coil 1420 to prevent it. According to an embodiment, when the object to be heated (HO) is made of a metal material, the MCU 1440 controls the working coil 1450 to operate according to the output set by the user even if it is determined that the thin film 1420 is damaged. can do. That is, when the metal container is disposed on the upper plate part 15, since the metal container can be directly induction heated, the MCU 1440 controls the working coil 1450 to operate even when the thin film 1420 is damaged. Ease of use can be ensured.

According to an embodiment, whether the object to be heated HO is a metal material or a non-metal material may be determined based on a resistance component and an inductor component of the thin film 1420 and an equivalent circuit formed by the object HO. A detailed description thereof will be provided later.

18 is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining whether the thin film 1420 is damaged based on whether the object to be heated HO is disposed on the upper plate portion 15 according to an exemplary embodiment.

Since the features of steps S1810, S1820, S1830 and S1840 of FIG. 18 may correspond to the features of steps S1410, S1420, S1430 and S1440 of FIG. 14, detailed description is omitted.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the cooktop 1400 may determine whether the thin film 1420 is damaged only when the object HO to be heated is disposed on the upper plate part 15 . According to an embodiment, the information on the correlation previously stored in the memory 1430 of the cooktop 1400 is a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 in a state where the object HO to be heated is not disposed. It may be information about the correlation between and temperature. Accordingly, the cooktop 1400 can estimate the temperature by comparing the information on the correlation stored in advance with the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed only by the thin film 1420 .

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 may further include a recognition sensor (eg, an infrared sensor) for confirming whether the object to be heated HO is disposed on the upper plate 15 .

According to an embodiment, operation S1800 may be started based on various surrounding conditions. For example, when the user inputs an output, when the object to be heated HO disposed on the top plate 15 is removed from the top plate 15 , a command to start the process of determining whether the thin film is damaged is input by the user The execution of step S1800 may be started at a time point, such as when.

According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the object to be heated HO is disposed on the upper plate 15 in step S1800 , the MCU 1440 may perform step S1810 .

According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the object to be heated HO is not disposed on the upper plate 15 in step S1800 , the MCU 1440 does not perform a process for determining whether the thin film is damaged.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 may determine whether the thin film 1420 is damaged by comparing the estimated temperature information estimated using the fixed frequency method and the measured temperature information. According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 may control the working coil 1450 to be driven at a first frequency, and may control the working coil 14450 driven at the first frequency to be driven at a second frequency. When the working coil 1450 is controlled to be driven at the second frequency, a resistance component and an inductor component corresponding to the estimated temperature information may be determined based on the second frequency. That is, the MCU 1440 controls the working coil 1450 to operate at a predetermined second frequency in a situation in which the working coil 1450 is being driven with the output set by the user (ie, at the first frequency), and the corresponding frequency The temperature of the thin film 1420 may be estimated based on the resistance component and the inductor component calculated during the operation. According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 determines whether the thin film 1420 is damaged through a result of comparing the temperature of the thin film 1420 estimated through the fixed frequency method and the measured temperature information obtained by the temperature sensor 1460 . can be decided According to an embodiment, the characteristics of the method of estimating the temperature of the thin film 1420 by the cooktop 1400 using the fixed frequency method have been described above through various embodiments including FIGS. 12A and 12B, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 may determine whether the thin film 1420 is damaged by using the temperature estimated using the autonomous resonance method. The cooktop 1400 may provide a resonance current to the working coil 1450 based on a switching operation. According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 performs temperature measurement in a driving process using a fixed frequency (ie, a second frequency) in a situation in which the working coil 1450 is driven with an output corresponding to an output input by a user. In addition, when a predetermined current flows through the working coil 1450, it transitions to an autonomous resonance state and measures the resonance frequency and attenuation width of the resonance current to determine the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit. The MCU 1440 may determine estimated temperature information based on the measured resistance component and the inductor component, and may determine whether the thin film 1420 is damaged by comparing it with the measured temperature information obtained by the temperature sensor 1460 . According to an embodiment, the characteristics of the method of estimating the temperature of the thin film 1420 by the cooktop 1400 using the autonomous resonance method have been described above through various embodiments including FIGS. 13A and 13B , and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method determines the material of the container as the object to be heated (HO) by comparing the temperature estimated using the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film and the temperature measured through the temperature sensor. can

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 of the induction heating type cooktop 1400 includes the temperature of the thin film 1420 stored in advance in the memory 1430 and the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 and The material of the object to be heated HO of the thin film 1420 may be determined by using the information on the correlation of . According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 operates the working coil 1450 , and is formed by the thin film 1420 that is inductively heated by the working coil 1450 based on the correlation information stored in the memory 1430 . It is possible to determine the estimated temperature information corresponding to the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit. The MCU 1440 compares the determined estimated temperature information with the measured temperature information indicating the temperature of the thin film 1420 actually measured by the temperature sensor 1460 to determine whether the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metallic material or a non-metallic material. can decide

According to an embodiment, the information on the correlation between the temperature of the thin film 1420 stored in the memory 1430 in advance and the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 is that the thin film 1420 is heated. It may include information on the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed for each temperature. That is, the estimated temperature estimated based on the correlation information stored in the memory 1430 may be substantially the same as the result of measuring the actual temperature of the thin film 1420 or may show a difference within a predetermined range. According to an embodiment, the method in which the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method estimates the temperature of the thin film 1420 may be implemented through the various embodiments described above with reference to FIGS. 10 to 13B .

19 is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining the material of the object to be heated (HO) by comparing estimated temperature information and measured temperature information by the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method according to an embodiment.

In step S1910, the cooktop 1400 may store information on the correlation between the temperature of the thin film 1420 and the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit formed by the thin film in advance in the memory 1430 according to an embodiment. . According to an embodiment, the time at which the memory 1430 stores the information on the correlation between the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit may be any point in step S1940 of comparing the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, For convenience of description, the description will be made on the premise that the step S1910 is performed.

According to an embodiment, the correlation information stored in advance in step S1910 is information indicating a correlation between a resistance component and an inductor component for an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 and the actual temperature of the thin film 1420 .

According to an embodiment, the thin film 1420 is made of a material that can be inductively heated by the working coil 1450 . Accordingly, the equivalent circuit viewed from the working coil 1450 may be formed by the thin film 1420 . However, when the container disposed on the top plate 15 is made of a metal material, it may be induction heated like the thin film 1420 , and when the container made of a metal material is disposed on the top plate part 15 , the equivalent circuit viewed from the working coil 1450 . may be formed by the thin film 1420 and the container.

In step S1920, the cooktop 1400 is formed by the thin film 1420 inductively heated by the working coil 1450 based on the correlation information stored in advance in step S1910 according to an embodiment. Estimated temperature information corresponding to the inductor component may be determined. According to an embodiment, as the working coil 1450 operates, the thin film 1420 may be inductively heated, and as the thin film 1420 is inductively heated, a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film 1420 This can change. The MCU 1440 may calculate the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit through the output power and the resonance current of the working coil 1450, and based on the information about the correlation stored in advance, the resistance component and the inductor component Corresponding estimated temperature information may be determined. The estimated temperature information determined by the MCU 1440 is an estimated value, not a temperature actually measured by the temperature sensor 1460 .

In step S1930 , the cooktop 1400 may obtain measured temperature information by measuring the temperature of the thin film 1420 inductively heated by the working coil 1450 using the temperature sensor 1460 according to an embodiment.

In step S1940, the cooktop 1400 compares the estimated temperature information determined in step S1920 with the measured temperature information obtained in step S1930 according to an embodiment to determine whether the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metallic material or a non-metallic material. have.

According to an embodiment, when the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a non-metal material, since the equivalent circuit viewed from the working coil 1450 is formed only by the thin film 1420, the estimated temperature information obtained in step S1920 and step S1930 The measured temperature information obtained from

However, when the material of the object to be heated (HO) is made of metal, the equivalent circuit viewed from the working coil 1450 is formed in the equivalent circuit by the thin film 1420 and the object to be heated (HO) made of metal. Since the corresponding estimated temperature information itself changes abruptly due to changes in the resistance component and the inductor component of the circuit, the MCU 1440 performs the thin film 1420 based on the difference between the actual temperature and the estimated temperature due to damage to the thin film 1420 . damage can be determined.

20 is a process in which the cooktop 1400 determines whether the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metallic material or a non-metallic material according to whether the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included in a preset range according to an embodiment; shows a flow chart for The features of steps S2010, S2020, and S2030 of FIG. 20 may be the same as or similar to those of steps S1910, S1920, and S1930 of FIG. 19, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In step S2040, the MCU 1440 may determine whether a difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included in a preset range.

In an embodiment, when the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included in a preset range, in step S2050 , the MCU 1440 may determine that the material of the object HO to be heated is a non-metal material. According to an embodiment, when the difference (D) between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is not included in a preset range (for example, when D>TH3), the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metallic material. it can be decided that

According to an embodiment, when the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is not included in the preset range, the MCU 1440 may determine that the material of the object to be heated HO is a non-metal material in step S2052 . According to an embodiment, when the difference (D) between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included in a preset range (eg, D≤TH3), it can be determined that the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a non-metal material. have.

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 may further include an output unit (not shown) capable of outputting at least one of visual information and audible information, and the MCU 1440 includes such an output unit (not shown). can be controlled to output arbitrary information. According to an embodiment, when it is determined whether the material of the object to be heated HO is a metal material or a non-metal material according to whether the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is within a preset range, through an output unit (not shown) Visual information and/or auditory information about the material of the object HO to be heated may be output. Through this output, the user may recognize the material of the object HO to be heated, and accordingly, it may be confirmed whether the cooktop 1400 correctly senses the material of the object HO to be heated.

21 is a process for determining the material of the object to be heated (HO) in a situation in which at least one of the thin film 1420 and the object to be heated (HO) is heated in a heating mode selected based on a preset condition according to an embodiment; Here is a flowchart on how to do it. The characteristics of step S2110, step S2120, step S2130, step S2140, step S2150 and step S2152 of FIG. 21 are the same as the characteristics of step S2010, step S2020, step S2030, step S2040, step S2050 and step S2052 of FIG. Since they are similar, a detailed description will be omitted.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 1440 may select a heating mode based on a preset condition among a plurality of heating modes in step S2156. According to an embodiment, the process of selecting a heating mode according to a preset condition may be implemented according to various embodiments. For example, the MCU 1440 may select one of a metal heating mode or a non-metal heating mode included in the plurality of heating modes according to the material of the object HO to be heated determined in step S2150 or step S2152 . As another example, the MCU 1440 may select a metal heating mode or a non-metal heating mode according to an external input received through a user interface (not shown). In step S2156, the cooktop 1400 may heat at least one of the thin film 1420 and the object HO to be heated in the selected heating mode.

According to an embodiment, when the cooktop 1400 operates in the metal heating mode, heating may be performed at a higher output than when the cooktop 1400 operates in the non-metal heating mode. For example, the maximum output of the working coil 1450 in the metal heating mode may be set to 3KW, and the maximum output of the working coil 1450 in the non-metal heating mode may be set to 2KW.

In step S2160, the MCU 1440 may determine whether the material of the object to be heated HO determined based on the difference between the heating mode selected according to an embodiment and the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information corresponds to each other. According to an embodiment, the object to be heated HO disposed on the upper plate 15 of the cooktop 1400 may be replaced at any time depending on the use situation, and accordingly, the material of the object to be heated HO to be heated may vary. can Therefore, even if the selected heating mode and the material of the object to be heated correspond to each other, the selected heating mode and the material of the object to be heated HO may not correspond to each other depending on the user's usage situation. According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 may continuously determine whether the selected heating mode and the material of the object to be heated (HO) correspond to each other by repeatedly performing step S2160 at every arbitrary cycle.

In step S2162, the cooktop 1400 may heat at least one of the thin film and the object to be heated in a heating mode corresponding to the material of the object to be heated (HO) according to an exemplary embodiment. According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the material of the object to be heated (HO) does not correspond to the selected heating mode as a result of the determination of whether to respond in step S2160, the MCU 1440 corresponds to the material of the object to be heated (HO). The working coil 1450 may be controlled to operate in a heating mode. Accordingly, the cooktop 1400 may adaptively adjust the heating mode of the working coil 1450 according to the user's usage status, and thus may execute a heating mode suitable for the material of the object HO to be heated.

22 is a flowchart illustrating a method of changing a heating mode performed by the cooktop 1400 when the selected heating mode does not correspond to the material of the object HO to be heated, according to an embodiment. According to an exemplary embodiment, the characteristics of step S2260 of FIG. 22 may be the same as or similar to those of step S2160 of FIG. may have been reached

According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the material of the object to be heated determined based on the difference between the heating mode selected in step S2260 and the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information does not correspond to each other, the cooktop 1400 is heated in step S2271. It can be determined whether the mode is a metal heating mode or a non-metal heating mode. According to an embodiment, the cooktop 1400 determines whether the heating mode is a metal heating mode in step S2271 according to an embodiment, when the heating mode is a non-metal heating mode and the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metal material, and the heating mode is a metal The heating mode is for changing the heating mode by dividing the case where the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a non-metal material. Therefore, the process of determining whether the heating mode selected by the cooktop 1400 in step S2271 is a metal heating mode or a non-metal heating mode is replaced by determining whether the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metal material or a non-metal material. can However, hereinafter, for convenience of description, the cooktop 1400 in step S2271 will be described on the premise that it is determined whether the selected heating mode is a metal heating mode or a non-metal heating mode.

When it is determined that the heating mode selected in step S2271 is the non-metal heating mode, the cooktop 1400 may change the heating mode to the metal heating mode in step S2272, and based on this, at least one of the object to be heated (HO) and the thin film 1420 can be heated.

When it is determined that the heating mode selected in step S2271 is a metal heating mode, the cooktop 1400 may change the heating mode to a non-metal heating mode in step S2273, and based on this, at least one of the object to be heated (HO) and the thin film 1420 can be heated.

According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the heating mode selected in step S2271 is the metal heating mode, the cooktop 1400 may stop heating instead of changing the heating mode to the non-metal heating mode in step S2273. According to an embodiment, since the induction heating type cooktop 1400 in which the thin film 1420 is disposed uses information on the resistance component and the inductor component of the equivalent circuit viewed from the working coil 1450, the object to be heated (HO) The difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information may be included in a preset range both when the material of is a non-metal material and when the object to be heated HO is not disposed on the upper plate 15 . Therefore, even when the object to be heated HO is not disposed on the upper plate 15 (for example, when the user removes the object HO from the upper plate 15 during heating), the heating mode is changed to the non-metal heating mode In order to prevent the situation from continuously operating, the MCU 1440 is a working coil 1450 to stop heating instead of changing the heating mode to a non-metal heating mode when it is determined that the heating mode selected in step S2271 is a metal heating mode. can also be controlled.

According to an embodiment, the process in which the MCU 1440 stops heating instead of changing the heating mode to the non-metal heating mode in step S2273 may be performed when a predetermined condition is satisfied. For example, when an external signal instructing to continue heating by changing the heating mode to the non-metal heating mode is not input to the user interface (not shown) of the cooktop 1400 within a predetermined time, or a metal material to be heated It is determined that the object HO is placed again on the upper panel 15 or the object HO to be heated is not placed on the upper panel HO by a separate container detection sensor (not shown) included in the cooktop 1400 . If it is determined that it is, heating can be stopped.

23 is a diagram illustrating a method of controlling a heating mode by determining a material of an object to be heated (HO) through comparison of estimated temperature information and measured temperature information and determining whether the object to be heated (HO) is disposed according to an embodiment; A block diagram of a cooktop 2300 of induction heating is shown. According to an embodiment, among the components included in the induction heating type cooktop 2300 of FIG. 23 , the cover plate 2310 , the thin film 2320 , the memory 2330 , the MCU 2340 , and the working coil 2350 are shown in FIG. 14 . Among the components included in the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method, the cover plate 1410 , the thin film 1420 , the memory 1430 , and the MCU 1440 may have a configuration corresponding to the working coil 1450 . Accordingly, the characteristics of the cooktop 2300 of the induction heating method of FIG. 23 may at least partially use the characteristics of the cooktop 1400 of the induction heating method described with reference to FIGS. 14 to 22 .

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 2300 of the induction heating method may include a container detection sensor 2370 . According to an exemplary embodiment, the container detection sensor 2370 may obtain arrangement information indicating whether the object to be heated HO is disposed on the upper plate part 15 . According to an embodiment, the container detection sensor 2370 includes various types of sensors (eg, an infrared sensor, an optical sensor, a pressure sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, proximity sensor, etc.).

According to an embodiment, the MCU 2340 may determine whether the object to be heated HO is disposed on the upper plate 15 based on the arrangement information obtained from the container detection sensor 2370 . According to an embodiment, the MCU 2340 may determine whether the object to be heated HO is a metallic material or a non-metal material based on the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, and accordingly, it is preferable for the material of the object to be heated HO. The working coil 2350 may be controlled to operate in a heating mode. According to an embodiment, the MCU 2340 may control the heating mode based on whether the object to be heated HO is disposed on the upper plate 15 . According to an embodiment, when it is determined that the object HO to be heated is not disposed, the MCU 2340 may control the working coil 2350 to stop heating in order to secure stability.

24 is a view illustrating a method of controlling a heating mode by determining the material of the object to be heated (HO) through comparison of the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information and determining whether the object to be heated (H0) is disposed according to an embodiment; A flowchart for the method is shown.

The characteristics of steps S2410, S2430, S2440, and S2450 of FIG. 24 may be the same as or similar to those of steps S1910, S1920, S1930, and S1940 of FIG. 19, and thus detailed description will be omitted.

In step S2420 , the induction heating type cooktop 2300 may obtain arrangement information indicating whether the object to be heated HO is disposed through the container detection sensor 2370 according to an embodiment. According to an embodiment, the step S2420 of obtaining the arrangement information may be performed at least once at an arbitrary point in time before the step S2460 of controlling the heating mode.

In operation S2460, the induction heating type cooktop 2300 may control the heating mode based on the arrangement information and the material of the object to be heated (HO) according to an embodiment. Various methods of controlling the heating mode based on the material of the object to be heated HO may be performed through the various embodiments described above with reference to FIGS. 19 to 22 . A method of further considering arrangement information to control a heating mode based on the material of the object HO to be heated according to an embodiment will be described later through various embodiments.

25 is a flowchart illustrating a method of stopping heating by determining whether an object to be heated HO is disposed, according to an embodiment.

The characteristics of steps S2510, S2520, S2530, S2540, S2550 and S2560 of FIG. 25 may be the same as or similar to the characteristics of steps S2410, S2420, S2430, S2440, S2450 and S2460 of FIG. Therefore, a detailed description will be omitted.

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 2300 may determine in step S2522 whether the object to be heated HO is disposed based on the arrangement information obtained in step S2520.

According to an embodiment, when the arrangement information indicates that the object to be heated HO is not disposed, the MCU 2340 may control the working coil 2350 to stop heating in step S2524 .

According to an embodiment, when the arrangement information indicates that the object to be heated (HO) is placed, the MCU 2540 may control the heating mode based on the arrangement information and the material of the object to be heated through steps S2530 to S2560. have.

According to an embodiment, when the arrangement information indicates that the object to be heated HO is disposed, the MCU 2540 may control the heating mode of the working coil 2550 based on the material of the object HO to be heated. That is, the MCU 2540 only determines that the object to be heated (HO) is disposed on the upper plate part 15 based on the time when the container detection sensor 2570 detects the container, and the material of the object to be heated (HO) is Control the heating mode based on

According to an embodiment, when the arrangement information indicates that the object to be heated HO is placed, the MCU 2540 may determine whether a difference D between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is included within a preset range. According to an embodiment, when the difference D is included within a preset range (for example, when D ≤ TH3), the MCU 2540 determines that the material of the disposed object to be heated HO is a non-metal material, and , when the difference D is not included within a preset range (eg, when D>TH3), it may be determined that the material of the object to be heated HO is a metal material.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 2540 is a working coil to heat at least one of the thin film 2520 and the object to be heated (HO) in a heating mode selected according to whether the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metallic material or a non-metal material. (2550) can be controlled. The MCU 2540 may control the working coil 2550 to be driven in a heating mode corresponding to the material of the object HO to be heated.

According to an embodiment, the MCU 2540 controls the working coil 2550 to heat at least one of the thin film 2520 and the object to be heated (HO) in a heating mode selected based on a preset condition among a plurality of heating modes. can

According to an embodiment, the plurality of heating modes may include a metal heating mode and a non-metal heating mode. According to an embodiment, the MCU 2540 may control the working coil 2550 to operate at a higher output in the metal heating mode than in the non-metal heating mode.

According to an embodiment, the heating mode of the working coil 2550 may be determined based on a preset condition, and the preset condition is the material of the currently disposed object to be heated HO or an external for selecting a heating mode. It may be at least one of various conditions including whether or not a signal is received. According to an exemplary embodiment, a user may input an external signal for selecting a heating mode to the cooktop 2500 through a user interface.

According to an embodiment, when the material of the object to be heated (HO) determined based on the difference between the heating mode selected based on the external signal and the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information does not correspond to each other, the MCU 2540 is the object to be heated. The working coil 2550 may be controlled to drive in a heating mode corresponding to the material of (HO). According to an embodiment, when the process of changing the heating mode is performed, the cooktop 2500 may output the change of the heating mode in the form of visual or auditory information through an output unit (not shown).

26 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling a heating mode based on arrangement information and a selected heating mode when the material of the object to be heated HO and the selected heating mode do not correspond to each other according to an embodiment. Step S2660 of FIG. 26 may correspond to step S2650 of FIG. 25 . Therefore, before the operation of FIG. 26 is performed, at least some of the operations before step S2650 of FIG. 25 may be performed.

In step S2660, when it is determined that the material of the object to be heated determined based on the difference between the heating mode selected according to an embodiment and the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information corresponds to the cooktop 2500 in step S2660, the heating mode is not changed. and keep it as is

In step S2660, when it is determined that the material of the object to be heated determined based on the difference between the heating mode selected according to an embodiment and the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information does not correspond to the cooktop 2500 in step S2660, the selected in step S2671 It can be determined whether the heating mode is a metal heating mode or a non-metal heating mode. The process in which the cooktop 1400 determines whether the selected heating mode is a metal heating mode or a non-metal heating mode in step S2671 may be replaced by determining whether the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metal material or a non-metal material . Based on the determination result in step S2671 , the cooktop 2500 may control the heating mode differently depending on whether the material of the disposed object HO is a metal material or a non-metal material.

According to an embodiment, when the heating mode is selected as the non-metal heating mode based on a preset condition, and it is determined that the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a metal material based on the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, step S2672 MCU 2540 may control the working coil 2550 to heat by changing the heating mode to the metal heating mode.

According to an embodiment, when the heating mode is selected as the metal heating mode based on a preset condition, and it is determined that the material of the object to be heated (HO) is a non-metal material based on the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, step S2675 The MCU 2540 may determine whether the arrangement information indicates that the object to be heated HO is placed. That is, the cooktop 2500 determines the material of the object to be heated HO based on the arrangement information obtained using the container detection sensor 2570 and determines the material of the object HO to be heated or corresponds to the material as it recognizes that the object HO is disposed. After selecting the heating mode to be heated, when it is recognized that the selected heating mode is different from the material of the object to be heated (for example, removing the object to be heated of the object to be heated (HO)) may occur. In the cooktop 2500 according to an embodiment, since a thin film 2520 capable of induction heating is disposed on the upper plate portion 15, a case in which an object to be heated (HO) made of a non-metal material is disposed and an object to be heated (HO) Electrical parameters (ie, a resistance component and an inductor component) of the equivalent circuit recognized by the cooktop 2500 may be the same or similar in the case in which is not disposed. Accordingly, based only on the electrical parameters of the equivalent circuit recognized by the cooktop 2500 , it may be difficult to distinguish whether the non-metallic object HO is disposed or the object HO is not disposed.

According to an embodiment, the cooktop 2500 uses the container detection sensor 2570 to obtain again the arrangement information indicating whether the object to be heated (HO) is placed in step S2675, so that the object to be heated of a non-metallic material (HO) is It can be distinguished whether the object to be heated (HO) is disposed or not.

According to an embodiment, when the arrangement information obtained again in step S2675 indicates that the object to be heated (HO) is placed, in step S2673 the MCU 2540 changes the heating mode to the metal heating mode to heat the working coil 2550. can be controlled.

According to an embodiment, when the arrangement information obtained again in step S2675 indicates that the object to be heated (HO) is not placed, the MCU 2540 in step S2676 may control the working coil 2550 to stop heating. . Accordingly, it is possible to ensure safety in use by preventing a situation in which heating is continued in a situation where there is no object to be heated (HO).

For those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure pertains, various substitutions, modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the embodiments without departing from the technical spirit of the embodiments, so the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings is not limited by

15: upper plate HO: object to be heated
20: cover plate 25: case
TL: thin film WC: working coil
35: insulating material 45: shielding plate 50: support member 55: cooling fan

Claims (24)

a cover plate coupled to the upper end of the case and provided with an upper plate on which an object to be heated is disposed;
a thin film coated on at least one of an upper end and a lower end of the upper plate;
a working coil provided inside the case for inductively heating at least one of the thin film and the object to be heated;
a temperature sensor measuring the temperature of the thin film to obtain measured temperature information;
a memory configured to store in advance information on a correlation between a temperature of the thin film and a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film; and
Based on the information on the correlation, estimated temperature information corresponding to a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film inductively heated by the working coil is determined, and the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information Including an MCU configured to determine whether the material of the object to be heated is a metal material or a non-metal material based on the induction heating method.
The method of claim 1, wherein the MCU is
If the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is within a preset range, it is determined that the material of the object to be heated is a non-metal material,
and determine that the material of the object to be heated is a metal material if the difference is not included within a preset range.
The method of claim 1,
The MCU is configured to control the working coil to heat at least one of the thin film and the object to be heated in a heating mode selected based on a preset condition among a plurality of heating modes,
The plurality of heating modes include a metal heating mode and a non-metal heating mode, an induction heating type cooktop.
4. The method of claim 3,
The MCU is configured to control the working coil to operate with a higher output than the non-metal heating mode in the metal heating mode, the cooktop of the induction heating method.
4. The method of claim 3,
The MCU is configured to control the working coil to heat at least one of the thin film and the object to be heated in a heating mode selected according to whether the material of the object to be heated is a metallic material or a non-metal material.
4. The method of claim 3,
The MCU is configured to control the working coil to heat at least one of the thin film and the object to be heated in a selected heating mode according to an external input.
4. The method of claim 3,
The MCU is configured to operate the working coil in a heating mode corresponding to the material when the material of the object to be heated determined based on the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information does not correspond to the selected heating mode. A cooktop of an induction heating method, which is configured to control.
8. The method of claim 7,
The MCU is configured to change the heating mode to a metal heating mode when the selected heating mode is a non-metal heating mode, and when it is determined that the material of the object to be heated is a metal material based on a difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information Consisting of an induction heating type cooktop.
8. The method of claim 7,
When the selected heating mode is a metal heating mode, when it is determined that the material of the object to be heated is a non-metal material based on a difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, the working coil is not operated. An induction heating cooktop configured to control a coil.
The method of claim 1,
and the MCU is configured to determine the estimated temperature information using a fixed frequency method.
The method of claim 1,
and the MCU is configured to determine the estimated temperature information using an autonomous resonance method.
The method of claim 1,
The thickness of the thin film is less than the skin depth (skin depth) of the thin film, the cooktop of the induction heating method.
A method for determining a material of an object to be heated disposed on a cooktop of an induction heating method, the method comprising:
storing in advance information on a correlation between a temperature of a thin film coated on at least one of an upper end and a lower end of the upper plate of the cooktop and a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film;
determining estimated temperature information corresponding to a resistance component and an inductor component of an equivalent circuit formed by the thin film inductively heated by a working coil based on the information on the correlation;
obtaining measured temperature information by measuring the temperature of the thin film through a temperature sensor; and
and determining whether a material of the object to be heated is a metal material or a non-metal material based on the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information.
The method of claim 13, wherein the step of determining whether the material of the object to be heated is a metal material or a non-metal material,
determining that the material to be heated is a non-metal material when the difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information is within a preset range; and
and determining that the object to be heated is a metallic material if the difference is not included within the preset range.
14. The method of claim 13,
selecting a heating mode based on a preset condition among a plurality of heating modes; and
Further comprising the step of heating at least one of the thin film and the object to be heated in the selected heating mode,
wherein the plurality of heating modes include a metal heating mode and a non-metal heating mode.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the heating step
heating in the metal heating mode to a higher output than in the non-metal heating mode.
The method of claim 15, wherein selecting the heating mode comprises:
and selecting the heating mode according to whether the material of the object to be heated is a metal material or a non-metal material.
The method of claim 15, wherein selecting the heating mode comprises:
selecting the heating mode according to an external input.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the heating step,
When the material of the object to be heated determined based on the difference between the selected heating mode and the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information does not correspond to each other, a heating mode corresponding to the material is selected among the thin film and the object to be heated. heating at least one.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the heating step,
When the selected heating mode is a non-metal heating mode, and it is determined that the material of the object to be heated is a metal material based on a difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information, the heating mode is changed to a metal heating mode for heating A method comprising the step of
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the heating step,
and stopping heating when the selected heating mode is a metal heating mode, and it is determined that the material of the object to be heated is a non-metal material based on a difference between the estimated temperature information and the measured temperature information.
The method of claim 13, wherein the determining of the estimated temperature information comprises:
A cooktop of an induction heating method, comprising determining the estimated temperature information using a fixed frequency method.
The method of claim 13, wherein the determining of the estimated temperature information comprises:
and determining the estimated temperature information using an autonomous resonance method.
14. The method of claim 13,
The thickness of the thin film is less than the skin depth (skin depth) of the thin film, the cooktop of the induction heating method.

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