FLIP-FLOPS

• What Is Flip-Flop?

In digital circuits, a flip-flop is a term referring to an electronic circuit (a bistable

multivibrator) that has two stable states and thereby is capable of serving as one
bit of memory.

A flip-flop is usually controlled by one or two control signal and/or a gate or clock
signal. The output often includes the complement as well as the normal output.

• History Of Flip-Flop

The first electronic flip-flop was invented in 1918 by William Eccles and F. W.
Jordon. It was initially called the Eccles–Jordan trigger circuit and consisted of
two active elements (vacuum tubes).

The flip-flop types (RS, D, T, and JK) were first discussed in a 1954 UCLA
course on computer design by Montgomery Phister and in his book Logical
Design of Digital Computers. The author was at the time working at Hughes
Aircraft under Dr. Eldred Nelson, who had coined the term JK for a flip-flop
which changed states when both inputs were on. The other names were coined by
Phister. They differ slightly from some of the definitions given below.

The origin of the name for the JK flip-flop is detailed by P. L. Lindley, a JPL
engineer, in a letter to EDN, an electronics design magazine. The letter is dated
June 13, 1968, and was published in the August edition of the newsletter. In the
letter, Mr. Lindley explains that he heard the story of the JK flip-flop from Dr.
Eldred Nelson, who is responsible for coining the term while working at Hughes
Aircraft. Flip-flops in use at Hughes at the time were all of the type that came to
be known as J-K. In designing a logical system, Dr. Nelson assigned letters to
flip-flop inputs as follows: #1: A & B, #2: C & D, #3: E & F, #4: G & H, #5: J &
K.

Latches

Fundamental bistable circuits (latches) are usually implemented by 2-input NOR

and NAND logic gates acting as the inverting amplifiers above. The two circuit
inputs are completely decoupled from the outputs and the feedback loop, and can
be easily driven by conventional logic levels.

A fundamental RS latch constructed from two NOR gates is drawn in the figure
on the right as a cross-coupled pair; R and S stand for reset and set, respectively.
The stored bit is present on the output marked Q. In storage mode, the R and S
inputs are both low and do not affect the circuit. The positive feedback maintains
the Q and Q outputs in a constant state, with Q the complement of Q. If S is
pulsed high while R is held low, then the Q output is forced high, and stays high
even after S returns low; similarly, if R is pulsed high while S is held low, then the
Q output is forced low, and stays low even after R returns low.

Clocked Flip-flops

The more advanced clocked (or non-transparent) devices are specially designed
for synchronous (time-discrete) systems; such devices therefore ignore its inputs
except at the transition of a dedicated clock signal (known as clocking, pulsing, or
strobing). This causes the flip-flop to either change or retain its output signal
based upon the values of the input signals at the transition. Some flip-flops change
output on the rising edge of the clock, others on the falling edge.

Clocked flip-flops are typically implemented as master–slave devices where two

basic flip-flops (plus some additional logic) collaborate to make it insensitive to
spikes and noise between the short clock transitions; they nevertheless also often
include asynchronous clear or set inputs which may be used to change the current
output independent of the clock.

Basic flip-flops

Flip-flops can be divided into types that have found common applicability in both
asynchronous and clocked sequential systems: the RS ("set-reset"), D ("data" or
"delay"), T ("toggle"), and JK types are the common ones; all of which may be
synthesized from (most) other types by a few logic gates. The behavior of a
particular type can be described by what is termed the characteristic equation,
which derives the "next" (i.e., after the next clock pulse) output, Qnext, in terms of
the input signal(s) and/or the current output, Q.
 RS (Reset-Set) flip-flop

An RS latch, constructed from a pair of cross-coupled NOR gates

The fundamental latch is the simple RS flip-flop (also commonly known as SR

flip-flop), where R and S stand for reset and set, respectively. It can be constructed
from a pair of cross-coupled NOR logic gates. The stored bit is present on the
output marked Q.

Normally, in storage mode, the R and S inputs are both low, and feedback
maintains the Q and Q outputs in a constant state, with Q the complement of Q. If
S is pulsed high while R is held low, then the Q output is forced high, and stays
high even after S returns low; similarly, if R is pulsed high while S is held low,
then the Q output is forced low, and stays low even after R returns low.

The next-state equation of the RS flip-flop is

Where Q is the current state. Qnext becomes Q (the stored value) at clock edge.
This equation originates from Claude Shannon's 1937 master's thesis.

RS Flip-Flop operation (BUILT WITH NOR GATES)

Characteristic table Excitation table
S R Action Q(t) Q(t+1) S R Action
0 0 Keep state 0 0 0 X No change
0 1 Q=0 1 0 0 1 reset
1 0 Q=1 0 1 1 0 set
1 1 Race Condition 1 1 X 0 No Change

('X' denotes a don’t care condition; meaning the signal is irrelevant)

JK flip-flop
The J-K FF is the most widely used FF because of its versatility. When properly
used it may perform the function of an R-S, T, or D FF.

To prevent any possibility of a "race" condition occurring when both the S and R
inputs are at logic 1 when the CLK input falls from logic 1 to logic 0, we must
somehow prevent one of those inputs from having an effect on the master latch in
the circuit. At the same time, we still want the flip-flop to be able to change state
on each falling edge of the CLK input, if the input logic signals call for this.
Therefore, the S or R input to be disabled depends on the current state of the slave
latch outputs.

If the Q output is logic 1 (the flip-flop is in the "Set" state), the S input can't make
it any more set than it already is. Therefore, we can disable the S input without
disabling the flip-flop under these conditions. In the same way, if the Q output is
logic 0 (the flip-flop is reset), the R input can be disabled without causing any
harm. If we can accomplish this without too much trouble, we will have solved the
problem of the "race" condition

The JK flip-flop augments the behavior of the SR flip-flop (J=Set, K=Reset) by

interpreting the S = R = 1 condition as a "flip" or toggle command. Specifically,
the combination J = 1, K = 0 is a command to set the flip-flop; the combination J
= 0, K = 1 is a command to reset the flip-flop; and the combination J = K = 1 is a
command to toggle the flip-flop, i.e., change its output to the logical complement
of its current value. Setting J = K = 0 does NOT result in a D flip-flop, but rather,
will hold the current state. To synthesize a D flip-flop, simply set K equal to the
complement of J. The JK flip-flop is therefore a universal flip-flop, because it can
be configured to work as an SR flip-flop, a D flip-flop, or a T flip-flop
The J-K is a five-input device. The J and K inputs are for data. The CLK
input is for the clock; and the PS and CLR inputs are the preset and clear
inputs, respectively. The outputs Q and Q are the normal complementary
outputs
 The timing diagram for the negatively triggered JK flip-flop

NOTE: The flip-flop is negative-edge triggered (falling clock pulse) as seen in the
timing diagram.

A circuit symbol for a negatively edge triggered JK flip-flop, where < is the
clock input, J and K are data inputs, Q is the stored data output, and Q' is the
inverse of Q

The characteristic equation of the JK flip-flop is:

• Truth Table Of JK Flip-Flop

JK Flip Flop operation

Characteristic table Excitation table

J K Qnext Comment Q Qnext J K Comment

0 0 Qprev hold state 0 0 0 X No change

0 1 0 reset 0 1 1 X Set

1 0 1 set 1 0 X 1 Reset

1 1 Qprev toggle 1 1 X 0 No change

• Pin Diagram Of IC 7410

IC 7410 is a three input NAND gate IC. It can be used to design an JK Flip-
Flop.

• Applications
1. A single flip-flop can be used to store one bit, or binary digit, of data. See
preset.
2. Any one of the flip-flop type can be used to build any of the others.
3. Many logic synthesis tools will not use any other type than D flip-flop and
D latch.
4. Level sensitive latches cause problems with Static Timing Analysis (STA)
tools and Design for Test (DFT). Therefore, their usage is often
discouraged
5. The data contained in several flip-flops may represent the state of a
sequencer, the value of a counter, an ASCII character in a computer's
memory or any other piece of information.
6. One use is to build finite state machines from electronic logic. The flip-
flops remember the machine's previous state, and digital logic uses that
state to calculate the next state.
PROJECT REPORT
ON
JK FLIP-FLOP
 Contents
Sr no Topics Page no. Remarks & Sign
1 Introduction to Flip-Flop
2 RS Flip-Flop
3 JK Flip-Flop
4 Truth Table Of JK Flip-Flop
5 Pin Diagram Of IC 7410
6 Applications
7 PCB Layouts
8 Conclusion
9 Data sheets
• Conclusion

The JK flip-flop is a universal flip-flop, because it can be configured to work

as an SR flip-flop, a D flip-flop, or a T flip-flop. The ‘Race’ condition of RS
FF is eliminated in JK FF.JK FF has wide used to design electrical circuits.