Use of charge-coupled devices for delaying analog signals

The use of charge-coupled devices for delaying analog signals is discussed and demonstrated. Some of the relevant operational factors of the CCD, such as the effect of transfer inefficiency, maximum delay, signal-to-noise ratio and power dissipation are presented. These show that devices with delays in the range 10/SUP -1/-10/SUP -6/s operating at frequencies up to several megahertz and having wide dynamic ranges are possible. Measurements of device frequency response, harmonic distortion, and transfer noise for a 250-element 2-phase device are presented. The use of both a linear and an area CCD to delay Picturephone video signals is shown. In the latter case a device having a serial-parallel-serial organization and holding 13780 charge samples at any given time was operated with a delay of 16.7 ms.