On-the-go food is very popular, but faces one big problem: for the meals to be hot, they must be heated up in a microwave. Since microwaves are currently too large and stationary to carry around with you, much of the convenience of the food is removed.
Microwaves don't have to be that big, which is why my proposal for a portable microwave would shrink the traditional 50x35x30 cm ovens down to a smaller 20x12x10 cm size.
The biggest problem would seem to be the thickness of microwave oven doors. The doors could easily be made thinner by replacing the glass panel used for viewing with a better insulator casing. This would remove the need for so much empty space between the two panels.
Microwave ovens generally operate at 2.4GHz, the same frequency as a cell phone. This means that having a charger capability would be a likely means of powering the microwave. Another possibility would be batteries, though those could become inconvenient to carry around often.
Either way, the convenience of carrying around a microwave with you, to allow the enjoyment of warm meals in a hectic day, would be pretty awesome.
I agree
No opinion
I disagree![[SPAM]](http://www.whynot.net/images/flagasspam.png)
Flag as spam
Add your comment
Actually, the problem would be portable power that would be light and small enough to adequately power the device, to make the development worth it.
I think that a portable microwave might be useful, but the major difficulty won't be the frequency it operates at, but more, the amount of power it uses.
Also, I think the 'oven' part of the microwave could be made collapsible to further shink the design. They aren't required to be air-tight, only 'rf-tight'. The heating components could probably fit into the area of a pocket-dictionary. But they are heavy, which would be a drawback for carrying one in your picnic basket or backpack. Still, it seems do-able and I can't seem to find that they already exist.
But back to the main problem--power. Most modern microwave ovens heat at 700 watts or so--at 12 volts (in a car for instance) this would be 58 amps. Your car cig-lighter is usually fused at 15 amps. You can get 2 amps out of a D-battery for a short term. So you can't get 700 watts easily. So either you compromise and only make a 100-watt microwave (slow to cook) or you compromise and plug it in somewhere. I could still imagine this being useful to have.
RV's and boats are made with 12-volt microwaves, but they're essentially small 120v units with inverters. They call them 'portable' but they're nothing like your idea.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0063947518898a&type=product&cmCat=froogle&cm_ven=data_feed&cm_cat=froogle&cm_pla=0470102&cm_ite=0063947518898a