The modern microwave oven, for all its apparent sophistication, has stagnated in technological progress over the past decade. The immediate need for improvement is necessary in not just cooking thoroughness and uniformity, but also in capacity. Current solutions are severely limited. For example, the best-developed solution for uniform cooking so far is to rotate a plate. However, this only captures the variability of constructive interference of microwaves in two dimensions. Cooking uniformity also varies greatly with the amount of time needed to heat an object. For example, a thick and dense frozen food item will take longer to cook than a less thick and/or dense frozen food item. The additional time allows for greater kinetic cooking, which can generally lead to more uniform heating. However, foods that only take a relatively short while to heat are particularly prone to having some over-cooked zones and other undercooked zones.
Another problem is the design flexibility of microwave ovens. Modern home design is moving towards lean and minimalistic features, while still providing all the modern conveniences, including microwave ovens. However, current ovens are not compatible with many new designs because of shape and power requirements, among other reasons. Thus, there are areas of needed improvement to accommodate changing housing needs.