CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES - PRINCIPLES AND SOME RECENT APPLICATIONS.

The CCD is reviewed with the accent on fundamental operating principles and on applications in the fields of digital memory and sampled-data signal processing systems. A non-mathematical treatment of 3-phase CCD operation is given, starting with the physics of the well-known enhancement-mode MOSFET. The development of the charge-coupled delay line, including charge input by optical methods, follows quite logically from an understanding of this basic device. The CCD memory is contrasted with MOSRAM memories and it is shown that the CCD memory is cost competitive in this application. Semiconductor memory is likely to see the single largest volume usage of off-the-shelf CCD's. There exist a number of applications for custom made CCD's with split electrode taps in radar and sonar signal processors.