Controlling RF energy without performance degradation
Industry landscape shifting with solid-state RF heating products

October 22, 2014, Seoul, Korea – Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL www.freescale.com, Country Manager for Korea Yeon-Ho Hwang) is shaking up the microwave industry by adding two new cost-effective solid-state RF power transistor products and an application development linkage system to its RF heating solutions. The newly launched products are designed to enable home appliance and commercial microwave OEM manufacturers to develop differentiated solutions and innovative product types, thereby presenting a new paradigm of cooking.

Solid-state RF power technology provides high efficiency and controllable RF energy without performance degradation over time, offering consumers a longer-lasting and more economically advantageous alternative compared to conventional magnetron-based microwave systems.

"Semiconductor-based RF power technology is a technology that will revolutionize the current market and completely transform the knowledge and application of microwave cooking that has persisted for the past 30 years," said Paul Hart, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Freescale's RF business unit. "With Freescale's complete RF heating products and essential development tools, customers will be able to develop differentiated products that cook more efficiently, effectively, with greater consistency and higher quality."

Freescale’s new solid-state RF device is designed to withstand harsh RF heating environments and is the industry’s first product in an economical plastic package operating at 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz. Unlike conventional magnetron technology, which relies on primitive on-off control where energy randomly fills the space inside the microwave oven, potentially leading to uneven cooking, the new semiconductor device enables more efficient energy usage by controlling RF energy, opening up new opportunities to realize innovative microwave shapes, sizes, and functionality. Magnetrons can begin to lose their RF energy generation capabilities after as little as 500 hours of operation. Solid-state RF power technology has proven reliability with a lifespan of up to 20 years without performance degradation under continuous use conditions. This reliability ensures that food is cooked consistently throughout the device's lifespan and contributes to reducing downtime and repairs in commercial kitchens.

Solid-state RF power technology presents new opportunities for differentiated cooking and more durable products. By controlling when and where RF energy is delivered, OEMs can develop innovative cooking appliances that support more precise cooking, consistent cooking quality, selective heating, and complex multi-functional cooking combinations.

Freescale’s new high-power, high-efficiency RF heating product family includes the MHT1003N, a 250W transistor for 2.45GHz microwave ovens with a power added efficiency of 58%, and the MHT1002N, a 350W transistor for 915MHz microwave ovens with a power added efficiency of 63%.
These devices are supported by Freescale’s innovative RF Power Tool system, which provides the capabilities necessary for the operation, evaluation, and optimization of Freescale’s industrial RF power devices. Supplied in Freescale’s cost-effective overmolded plastic packages, the MHT1003N and MHT1002N deliver industry-leading performance and are a solution addressing cost concerns in the microwave industry.

RF Power Tool System
Freescale recognized that support is important in the RF device industry, where customers may not have much expertise in RF circuit design and generally do not possess RF research facilities. Freescale recently announced an RF Power Tool system that can simplify the development of RF power applications and shorten time-to-market.

The Freescale RF Power Tool System, the only comprehensively integrated RF power application development system currently on the market, provides OEMs with the portable, multi-functional measurement capabilities required for key amplifier operation and measurement, such as gain, efficiency, bandwidth, and bias conditions. By integrating multiple RF instrument functions into a single ultra-compact device, the RF Power Tool System minimizes the size, cost, and complexity of RF research equipment required for application development and reduces the need for full bench RF evaluation equipment. The system can be operated directly from a PC or a front panel interface, and can be installed and operated in minutes at a significantly lower cost compared to traditional RF bench setups.

Supply situation and prices
The MHT1003N and MHT1002N RF power transistors are available in OM-780-2L and -4L packages at $37.00 and $26.00 (USD), respectively, based on a quantity of 10,000. Further details can be found at http://www.freescale.com/RFheating .

The Freescale RF Power Tool system (RFPOWERTOOL1000) is currently being supplied at $5,500 (USD) per development system through direct purchase from Freescale.
A compatible MHT1003N evaluation board (RFPT-H2450-250) is also available for direct purchase at a price of $1,650 (USD). For more details, please visit http://www.freescale.com/RFpowertool .