Abstract:
A smooth-top cooking appliance for inductively heating cooking utensils comprises a flat induction heating coil driven at an ultrasonic frequency by a solid state inverter. The control circuit for the inverter is suitable for fabrication as an integrated circuit and includes, in addition to turn-on circuitry, protection circuits to assure reliable and automatic operation under abnormal circuit conditions such as overvoltages and low input voltages tending to cause device and power circuit failures. The control circuit also includes a utensil presence detection circuit to assure operation under load and no-load conditions. Voltage responsive sensors such as Zener diodes sense the appropriate voltages at selected points on the power circuit and modify the operation of the control circuit, preferably by over-riding and inhibiting the turn-on circuitry. Disclosed with regard to a one-thyristor, variable frequency series resonant inverter with an added maximum frequency control, the protection circuit technique is applicable to inverters generally.