Industrial Applications of MW & RF Heating

Intended for technologists and key decision makers unfamiliar with industrial microwave and RF heating, this short course started with an introduction to the fundamentals of microwave and RF processing as related to typical industrial applications. Typical applications were then discussed with focus on issues relating to technical and economic feasibility analysis, process development, scale-up and safety. Special attention was given to applications in semiconductor fabrication. Attendees also had an opportunity for a hands-on operational demonstration with a basic microwave heating system.

Instructors

Ben is Sales Manager of PSC, a firm specializing in unique high power radio frequency equipment and processes since 1969. His education includes a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and a MS in Engineering Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He was a Construction Officer in the U.S. Air Force and has since held various engineering positions in product development, manufacturing, and application engineering.

Bernard Krieger is CEO of Cober Electronics, Inc. of Norwalk, CT, a leading manufacturer in a field of industrial microwave heating and systems. Having founded Cober Electronics in 1966, Mr. Krieger has extensive experience applying microwave technology to broad range of scientific and heavy industrial applications. He has been a guest lecturer in a field of industrial microwave technology in the US and in Europe for the Center for Professional Advancement. He is also a fellow and past president of the International Microwave Power Institute (IMPI) and is currently the president of the Microwave Working Group, Ltd.. Mr. Krieger was educated in New York University where he holds a Master’s Degree.

Bob has been actively involved in microwave heating applications since 1961. He holds over 30 US microwave patents and is responsible for many industrial microwave processes. He has been teaching microwave courses for 30 years and is the Chairman of the 4^th World Congress.

Dr. Stan Whitehair has over 25 years experience in electromagnetic heating and plasma processing, 14 years of which have been in the semiconductor industry developing advanced new processing equipment and techniques for thin film deposition and etching and packaging manufacturing. He has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. Dr. Whitehair is currently Technical Director at Cober Electronics, Inc. of Norwalk, CT, where he is responsible for the development of advanced RF and microwave heating systems and state of the art plasma processing systems. 

Computer Modeling of Microwave Systems

This course covered fundamental and practical issues in computer modeling of systems and processes in microwave power engineering and showed what modern advanced simulation can bring to engineers and designers of the microwave applications.  Emphasis was made on the advantages of the Finite Difference Time Domain method, the related computational strategy, and its operational aspects. Examples of modeling of practical applicators and their elements were presented and thoroughly analyzed.  The final part of this course consisted of exercises in practical modeling.  Participants were encouraged to bring their own laptops (onto which QuickWave-3D, the 3D conformal FDTD modeling software, will be installed for the duration of the course) and thus get hands-on experience and deeper impression on the process of modeling of applied microwave systems.

Instructors

Vadim Yakovlev received his Ph.D. in Radio Physics from the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1991 and in 1994 was promoted to the position of Senior Research Scientist. In 1993, Dr. Yakovlev worked in Electricité de France, Centre “Les Renardières” as a Visiting Researcher, and in 1996 received an NSF/NATO Fellowship and joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, his current affiliation.  In 1999 he established the Industrial Microwave Modeling Group as a Division of the WPI "Center for Industrial Math and Statistics", focusing on mathematical modeling and optimization of microwave systems and processes. Dr. Yakovlev organizes annual international seminars on computer modeling, has authored more than 60 papers and is a member of AMPERE, ICS and IMPI. His current research interests are in optimization of microwave structures and scientific computations with artificial neural networks.