Patent ID: 8835822

Claim:
A field director assembly for use in heating an article in a resonant cavity of a microwave oven, the field director assembly comprising: a non-conductive support member, the support member having a generally planar uninterrupted presentation surface positioned on the field director assembly to accept an article for presentation to the resonant cavity of the microwave oven and a second generally planar opposed surface; a field director structure comprising at least one substantially planar vane having a connection edge and a single free edge thereon, the vane being mechanically connected along its connection edge to the opposed surface of the support member such that substantially the entire length of the vane is overlaid by the opposed surface of the support member, the mechanical connection being implemented by either a fixed or a hinged connection between the field director structure and the support member, at least a first portion of the vane being electrically conductive and at least a second portion of the vane being electrically non-conductive, the electrically conductive portion of the vane having a predetermined width dimension and a corner thereon, the corner of the electrically conductive portion being rounded at a radius up to and including one half of the width dimension, the electrically non-conductive portion of the vane being disposed between the electrically conductive portion of the vane and the opposed surface of the support member such that the electrically conductive portion of the vane is spaced at least a predetermined close distance from the opposed surface of the support member, so that the occurrence of arcing in the vicinity of the electrically conductive portion is prevented when the field director assembly is used in an unloaded microwave oven.