This single resource provides complete guidance on FDTD techniques and applications, from basic concepts, to the current state-of-the-art. It enables you to more efficiently and effectively design and analyze key electronics and photonics technologies, including wireless communications devices, high-speed digital and microwave circuits, and integrated optics. You find sample FDTD codes written in Matlab® that serve as a self-guided refresher, and examples of how to use the FDTD method on a wide range of projects in the field. What’s more, to supplement the third edition, the authors and publisher have created a Website where you can find solutions to the problems, sample FDTD PML codes, text updates/errata, and downloadable color graphics and videos. Consequently, this new edition is the ideal textbook for both a senior-year undergraduate elective course and a graduate course in computational electrodynamics.

The Book News review is somewhat misleading. Taflove derives the difference equations in full, painstaking detail. (Perhaps the Book News reviewer fell asleep during that portion.) For me, this was the most valuable and educational portion of the book. Example applications have their place, but only after understanding the basic principles. Taflove did an excellent job in describing these principles, which go far beyond the basic Yee algorithm (e.g. extrapolation techniques and incorporation of BC's). Those readers familiar with other FD books should understand what I'm saying here: Anyone who reads this book and understands it will not only be conversant about FDTD but should also be able to write solid working codes. With the K&L book, this is very questionable.


The book for FDTD   November 8, 2005
Kevin J. McCann (Columbia, MD USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

This book is an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable reference/tutorial. The book is suitable for use in an advanced undergraduate/first-year graduate class with a prerequisite of one semester of undergraduate E&M. (The authors' preface indicates that this prerequisite is not entirely necessary, but I don't see how you could understand what is going on without it.)

The book can also be used for self-study. In this vein, the book's website contains 1d-, 2d-, and 3d-matlab scripts that are excellent for learning how to actually implement all of this stuff. The third edition weighs in at just over 1000 pages with a price tag of $139, which is $10 cheaper than the 2nd edition was when it came out.

Allen Taflove is, perhaps, the leader in the development and use of this technique. Allen is now at Northwestern. Susan Hagness was a recent PhD student of his (1998) and is now an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Wisconsin. The authors are at the forefront in the development of applications.

The third edition is significantly larger than the 2nd edition and includes several applications chapters that were cowritten with the major researchers in the field. The extraordinary explosion of application areas for FDTD is captured in the later chapters, and these chapters give students and new researchers a clear flavor of the vitality and interest in the field which extends from the detection of breast cancer to ELF pulses produced by earthquakes. It is refreshing to find authors who so readily give credit to others in their field. Taflove and Hagness have been very gracious in this regard, and as a consequence have a much better book and a very detailed and useful bibliography.

I very heartily recommend this book to anyone who wishes to use FDTD techniques.


A good overview of FD-TD method   May 25, 2000
5 out of 7 found this review helpful

A good intro book for the FD-TD method with many applications. The list of references at the end of each chapter is also very useful. Some of the material is now outdated and needs corrections, but otherwise a great reference for CEM. I would recommend this book over the Kunz & Luebbers FD-TD book.


FDTD bible   February 12, 2009
Srikumar Sandeep (Boulder,CO)
This book has everything you need to know about FDTD. Dont waste your money on Sullivan's cook book. One minor problem in this book is the lack of examples (for example numerical validation) of code. EXCELLENT book.


Excellent but a few topics have yet to be covered.   February 24, 2009
RJ (Northern California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book that covers FDTD well but not completely. The authors are very knowledgeable and the book is quite easy to read.
A few things are not covered as well as I would have liked:
* Adding voltage, current sources.
* Adding resistors, inductors, caps.

Also, a few things such as the exponential equations for Berenger's PML are not covered well. To complement this, you need Berenger's original paper on the subject.

The example code on the web site for the publisher:
http://www.artechhouse.com/Detail.aspx?strBookId=1123
is exteremely useful, since the code contains what the text of the book is missing in cases.

[...]

I'd highly recommend this book as the foundational book for FDTD and also suggest that you complement this with some of the original papers and also the book:
The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method for Electromagnetics with MATLAB simulations by Atef Elsherbeni and Veysel Demir,
which contains information on current,voltage sources and more extensive code examples.