Microwave method and system for material inspection

• US 7,230,564 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2005
• Issued: 06/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: 1 M International Corporation
• Original Assignee: 1 M International Corporation
• Inventors: Yang, Yang, Basir, Otman Adam, Mittal, Gauri S., Liu, Yaxun
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory; Bernarr E.
• Application Number:
  US11/151,595
• Publication Number:
  US 20050285772A1
• Time in Patent Office: 729 Days
• Field of Search: 342/21, 342/22, 342/175, 342188-197, 342/27, 342/28, 994/51, 426231-234, 426237-248
• US Class Current: 342/22
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 22/00 Investigating or analysing materials by the use of microwaves or radio waves, i.e. electromagnetic waves with a wavelength of one millimetre or more G01N3/00 - G01N17/00, G01N24/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 8/005 operating with millimetre waves, e.g. measuring the black losey radiation

Abstract

A microwave system is capable of inspecting a medium, especially capable of inspecting food products transferred by a conveyer belt in real time. The microwave system includes a transmitter for transmitting continuous microwave; a receiver for receiving the microwave passing through the medium; a scanner for electrically directing a microwave beam along a linear path, especially, across the conveyer belt; a waveform extractor for extracting the informational parts of the received signal outputted by the receiver; and a cpu for analyzing the data outputted by waveform extracting means.

Claims

1. A microwave system for inspecting a food product comprising:

a first waveguide array transmitting a microwave through the food product;

a second waveguide array receiving the microwave in a plurality of channels after passing through the food product; and

a signal analyzer for analyzing a signal from the plurality of channels of the second waveguide array to inspect the food product.

2. The system of claim 1 further including a first switch for controlling the first waveguide array.

3. The system of claim 2 further including a second switch for controlling the second waveguide array.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the signal analyzer extracts magnitude and phase information from the signal from the second waveguide array.

5. A method for inspecting a food product including the steps of:

transmitting a microwave through the food product;

receiving the microwave in a plurality of channels of a receiving waveguide array after it passes through the food product; and

analyzing the received microwave to inspect the food product.

6. The method of claim 5 further including the steps of:

generating a wave signal;

generating the microwave in a plurality of channels of a transmitting waveguide array based upon the wave signal; and

comparing the wave signal to the signal from the received microwave to inspect the food product.

7. The method of claim 6 further including the steps of extracting magnitude and phase information from the received microwave and analyzing the magnitude and phase information.

8. The method of claim 6 further including the step of mixing the wave signal and the signal from the received microwave in order to perform the step of comparing.

9. The method of claim 8 further including the step of detecting the presence of an object in the food product based upon the step of analyzing the received microwave.

10. The method of claim 5 further including the step of detecting the presence of an object in the food product based upon the step of analyzing the received microwave.