Book Review: Passive and Active Microwave Circuits

effectively the nature of the signal distortion which these defects can produce. Chapter 5 concludes the section of the book dealing with the properties of CCDs by describing techniques for interfacing them to the outside world. Noise considerations are also dealt with at this point. Applications of CTDs to delay-line signal processing, imaging and digital memories are covered in chapters 6,7 and 8 respectively. Although CCDs have made significant progress in all of these areas, there is a noticeable emphasis on the signal processing performance and applications of these devices throughout the book. This perhaps reveals the author's own predilection towards this subject, an impression confirmed by the comprehensive treatment it receives and the lucid manner in which it is presented. The chapters on imaging and memory applications, although somewhat shorter than that on analogue signal processing, provide a fairly up-to-date review of developments in these areas, and are written in the same concise but informative style as the rest of the book. Here, as in the other chapters, the author has included a useful selection of references to the technical literature. The mathematics throughout is at a level in keeping with the author's aim of making the book suitable for final year undergraduate and M.Sc. students of electrical engineering, as well as practising engineers requiring an introduction to the field. Unfortunately, however, the price will probably deter all but the most affluent students from purchasing the book, in which case one hopes that libraries will add it to their collections. Despite a slight bias towards the signal processing side, it represents a worthwhile addition to the small number of other books that have so far been written on these interesting and useful devices. P. J. HICKS, Department ofElectrical Engineering and Electronics, UM./.S. T.