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Review of Modern Communication Circuits by Jack Smith

Article  in  IEE review · January 1986

DOI: 10.1049/ep.1986.0396

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Book Reviews
Advanced infrared detectors and
systems
IEE Conference Publication No.263
1986, 183pp. £29
Thermal imaging is now a well establish-
ed technique and high performance
scanners presenting CCIR compatible
imaging with temperature resolutions of
better than 0-1 K are commonplace.
Still higher performance is desirable, as
is the elimination of mechanical scann-
ing, and the detector work described in
these papers is aiming toward fully star-
ing detector arrays.
Work on PtSi and indium-doped silicon
arrays for the 3-5/^m band is reported
from the Federal Republic of Germany,
and on hybrid silicon-CMT arrays from
France, Germany and the UK for the
8-13 urn band. Thermal detector arrays
are reported from Plessey with a 64 ele-
ment pyroelectric detector demonstrat-
ed, and two-dimensional arrays pro-
jected.
In the systems section a dual wave-
band imager is described (3-5 /^m and
8-13 ^rn), and NPL describes the modifi-
cations to a Class II scanner necessary
to allow measurement of the spatial vari-
ation of emissivity to be made. From
Denmark comes a paper describing a
surveillance system which allows im-
ages, both in the visual and thermal
bands, to be transmitted over land lines
to a remote headquarters, and which is
particularly adapted to identification of
coastal shipping. From France comes a
report of the use of a CO2 laser for the
measurement of true air-speed in air-
craft.
The papers are of obvious value to
those in the field but should be of gener-
al interest to those on the periphery.
P. STILLWELL
Modern communication circuits
Jack Smith
McGraw-Hill
1986, 557pp. £13-95
Many books on communication, perhaps
the majority intended for student use,
are concerned with communication
systems, the subject being covered
mainly at the block diagram or 'black
box' level. This book is different in that it
deals with the circuits that go to make
up the black boxes; the treatment is very
thorough with discrete components and
integrated circuits being given appropri-
ate emphasis. There is a heavy bias
towards circuits used in radio communi-
cation systems below about 100 MHz,
i.e. lumped-element circuits are covered
rather than those best considered as
containing distributed elements.
After an introductory chapter on radio
communication systems, the author
deals with small-signal amplifiers, noise
and distortion, high-frequency ampli-
fiers, oscillators, modulators and de-
modulators, and power amplifiers.
These topics are, of course, covered in
many other books but the emphasis here
View publication stats
ELECTRONICS & POWER SEPTEMBER 1986
is on the use of modern components and
techniques. However, perhaps the real
value of the book lies in the chapters
devoted to hybrid and transmission-line
transformers, phase-locked loops and
frequency synthesisers. These are im-
portant subjects in modern technology
yet are often given very superficial treat-
ment in general texts. This is not so here
and these chapters, in common with all
the others, contain worked examples,
problems, and a list of additional read-
ing. There is little mention of conven-
tional or digital filters but this is perhaps
the only omission worthy of mention.
The paperback (student) edition is par-
ticularly good value for money. It will be
useful to undergraduates in their later
years of study and to practising electron-
ic engineers involved with communica-
tion circuit design.
J.D. PARSONS
The secret life of
John Logie Baird
T. McArthur and P. Waddell
Hutchinson
1986, 274pp. £16-95
The secret life of John Logie Baird' is
just what the title indicates — this is in
no way a technical work and it is nearly
halfway through the book before there is
a real mention of the workings of Baird's
televisors. It is a fascinating insight into
the man himself, including his immedi-
ate family and his early life. The reader's
credulity may be somewhat strained by
the description of Baird's private and
illegal telephone system which ran for
miles in his native Helensburgh, and by
his lighting, at the age of 13, of his
father's manse with an oil engine which
he bought and a dynamo and accumulat-
ors which he made.
The sometimes graphic story of
Baird's training and early jobs, when he
earned 30/- a week as an assistant
mains engineer and made £200 a week
selling socks on the side, his fairly well
known forays into jam and chutney mak-
ing in Trinidad and his lesser known ex-
ploits as a soap salesman, form an
entertaining background to his serious
research and his often frustrating en-
counters with the BBC, Lord Reith in par-
ticular; the antagonism of Sir Robert
Watson-Watt, and much speculation as
to what exactly Baird was really engag-
ed upon during the Second World War.
The authors have researched their
subject meticulously, and give 258 refer-
ences. There are a handful of spelling er-
rors and one or two errors of fact,
Helensburgh looks over the Clyde not
the Forth, in 1900 it was the National
Telephone Company not the Post Office
which operated the 'phone system, and
it is the Institution of Electrical
Engineers, not the Institute; but these
are very minor things. The price of
£16 • 95 may deter some from buying the
book, but none should be discouraged
from reading it.
J. DAVIDSON
679
Applied clinical engineering
B.N. Feinberg
Prentice-Hall
1986, 524pp. £47.05
As modern health care has become
more technological the engineering
scientist has, of necessity, become
more closely involved not only in design-
ing and manufacturing the equipment
used at our hospitals, but also in their
maintenance and management. The
gradual emergence of an identifiable
discipline of clinical engineering has
been recognised both at a national level
by such bodies as the Certification Com-
mission in the USA and at the inter-
national level by the Clinical Engineering
Division of the International Federation
for Medical & Biological Engineering.
The emergence of any new discipline
brings with it the need for textbooks for
those wishing to undertake formal
studies leading to professional registra-
tion and certification. Barry Feinberg's
new book is in many respects an ex-
cellent book. Aimed principally at final
year undergraduate or post-graduate
students, the book covers a wide range
of topics relating to clinical engineering.
Most of the chapters include sample
questions of a standard likely to be met
by the student, together with a basic, but
not exhaustive, bibliography.
Inevitably perhaps in a book of this
kind the balance reflects the author's
own experience and enthusiasms. The
book starts with a brief description of
hospital management and the funda-
mentals of medical instrumentation. This
leads naturally into chapters on bioelec-
tric phenomena and electrocardio-
graphy, blood pressure monitoring and
pacemaker systems.
A further 100 pages is given over to
aspects of medical X-rays and the sys-
tem for their generation and detection.
Shorter chapters cover ultrasound,
defibrillation and electrosurgery.
The book concludes with short
chapters on performance and safety
testing of equipment and codes and
standards pertaining to the clinical
engineer.
The book as a whole is well produced
and copiously well illustrated. However,
it does have certain drawbacks. Not
least is its price which if it were halved
would bring it within the reach of the
students who would benefit from reading
it. My second major reservation is that in
common with many books emanating
from the USA it does ignore the fact that
clinical engineering is practiced outside
the USA. No mention is made for exam-
ple of the important safety standards
promulgated by such bodies as the I EC,
the British Standards Institution and the
DIN standards. An unnecessarily irritat-
ing omission and but for the price I
would be happy to recommend this book
to my students. As it stands it may not
even find a place which it deserves in
department libraries.
COLIN ROBERTS