Class Notes

Faculty of: Engineering and Technology

Programme Name: CSE
Course Name: Digital Electronics
Topic: Digital circuit, Logic gates, Boolean Algebra, Binary
Arithmetic, Number System, Error detection and Correction, Digital
Logic Families

Digital circuit

Summary of the Class: Digital Digital means electronic technology that generates, stores, and
means electronic technology that processes data in terms of two states: positive and non-positive.
generates, stores, and processes Positive is expressed or represented by the number 1 and non-
data in terms of two states: positive positive by the number 0.
and non-positive. Positive is
expressed or represented by the A “digital system‟ is a data technology that uses discrete
number 1 and non-positive by the (discontinuous) values represented by high and low states known as
number 0. bits. By contrast, non-digital (or analog) systems use a continuous
range of values to represent information. Although digital
representations are discrete, the information represented can be
either discrete, such as numbers, letters or icons, or continuous, such
as sounds, images, and other measurements of continuous systems.

Digital circuit: A digital circuit is a circuit where the signal must be

one of two discrete levels. Each level is interpreted as one of two
different states (for example, on/off, 0/1, true/false). Digital circuits
use transistors to create logic gates in order to perform Boolean
logic. This logic is the foundation of digital electronics and
computer processing. Digital circuits are less susceptible to noise or
degradation in quality than analog circuits. It is also easier to
perform error detection and correction with digital signals.

Digital electronic circuits operate with voltages of two logic levels

namely Logic Low and Logic High. The range of voltages
corresponding to Logic Low is represented with ‘0’. Similarly, the
range of voltages corresponding to Logic High is represented with
‘1’.

Logic Gate

The basic digital electronic circuit that has one or more inputs and
single output is known as Logic gate. Hence, the Logic gates are the
building blocks of any digital system. We can classify these Logic
gates into the following three categories.

i) Basic gates
ii) Universal gates
iii) Special gates

i) Basic Gates

In earlier chapters, we learnt that the Boolean functions can be

represented either in sum of products form or in product of sums
form based on the requirement. So, we can implement these
Boolean functions by using basic gates. The basic gates are AND,
OR & NOT gates.

a) AND gate

An AND gate is a digital circuit that has two or more inputs and
produces an output, which is the logical AND of all those inputs. It
is optional to represent the Logical AND with the symbol ‘.’

The following table shows the truth table of 2-input AND gate.

A B Y = A.B
0 0 0
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1
Here A, B are the inputs and Y is the output of two input AND gate.
If both inputs are ‘1’, then only the output, Y is ‘1’. For remaining
combinations of inputs, the output, Y is ‘0’.

The following figure shows the symbol of an AND gate, which is

having two inputs A, B and one output, Y.

This AND gate produces an output Y, which is the logical AND of

two inputs A, B. Similarly, if there are ‘n’ inputs, then the AND gate
produces an output, which is the logical AND of all those inputs.
That means the output of AND gate will be ‘1’, when all the inputs
are ‘1’.

b) OR gate

An OR gate is a digital circuit that has two or more inputs and

produces an output, which is the logical OR of all those inputs. This
logical OR is represented with the symbol ‘+’.

The following table shows the truth table of 2-input OR gate.

A B Y=A+B

0 0 0

0 1 1

1 0 1

1 1 1
Here A, B are the inputs and Y is the output of two input OR gate. If
both inputs are ‘0’, then only the output, Y is ‘0’. For remaining
combinations of inputs, the output, Y is ‘1’.

The following figure shows the symbol of an OR gate, which is

having two inputs A, B and one output, Y.

This OR gate produces an output Y, which is the logical OR of two

inputs A, B. Similarly, if there are ‘n’ inputs, then the OR gate
produces an output, which is the logical OR of all those inputs. That
means, the output of an OR gate will be ‘1’, when at least one of
those inputs is ‘1’.

c) NOT gate

A NOT gate is a digital circuit that has single input and single
output. The output of NOT gate is the logical inversion of input.
Hence, the NOT gate is also called as inverter.

The following table shows the truth table of NOT gate.

A Y = A’

0 1

1 0
Here A and Y are the input and output of NOT gate respectively. If
the input, A is ‘0’, then the output, Y is ‘1’. Similarly, if the input, A
is ‘1’, then the output, Y is ‘0’.

The following figure shows the symbol of NOT gate, which is

having one input, A and one output, Y.

This NOT gate produces an output Y, which is the complement of

input, A.

ii) Universal gates

NAND & NOR gates are called as universal gates. Because we can
implement any Boolean function, which is in sum of products form
by using NAND gates alone. Similarly, we can implement any
Boolean function, which is in product of sums form by using NOR
gates alone.

a) NAND gate

NAND gate is a digital circuit that has two or more inputs and
produces an output, which is the inversion of logical AND of all
those inputs.

The following table shows the truth table of 2-input NAND gate
Here, Output=Y

Here A, B are the inputs and Y is the output of two input NAND
gate. When both inputs are ‘1’, the output, Y is ‘0’. If at least one of
the input is zero, then the output, Y is ‘1’. This is just opposite to
that of two input AND gate operation.

The following image shows the symbol of NAND gate, which is

having two inputs A, B and one output, Y.

NAND gate operation is same as that of AND gate followed by an

inverter. That’s why the NAND gate symbol is represented like that.

b) NOR gate

NOR gate is a digital circuit that has two or more inputs and
produces an output, which is the inversion of logical OR of all
those inputs.

The following table shows the truth table of 2-input NOR gate.

Here, Output=Y

Here A, B are the inputs and Y is the output. If both inputs are ‘0’,
then the output, Y is ‘1’. If at least one of the input is ‘1’, then the
output, Y is ‘0’. This is just opposite to that of two input OR gate
operation.

The following figure shows the symbol of NOR gate, which is

having two inputs A, B and one output, Y.

NOR gate operation is same as that of OR gate followed by an

inverter. That’s why the NOR gate symbol is represented like that.

iii) Special Gates

Ex-OR & Ex-NOR gates are called as special gates. Because, these
two gates are special cases of OR & NOR gates.
 a) Ex-OR gate

The full form of Ex-OR gate is Exclusive-OR gate. Its function is

same as that of OR gate except for some cases, when the inputs
having even number of ones.

The following table shows the truth table of 2-input Ex-OR gate.

A B Y = A⊕B

0 0 0

0 1 1

1 0 1

1 1 0

Here A, B are the inputs and Y is the output of two input Ex-OR
gate. The truth table of Ex-OR gate is same as that of OR gate for
first three rows. The only modification is in the fourth row. That
means, the output Y

is zero instead of one, when both the inputs are one, since the inputs
having even number of ones.

Therefore, the output of Ex-OR gate is ‘1’, when only one of the
two inputs is ‘1’. And it is zero, when both inputs are same.

Below figure shows the symbol of Ex-OR gate, which is having two
inputs A, B and one output, Y.

Ex-OR gate operation is similar to that of OR gate, except for few

combinations of inputs. That’s why the Ex-OR gate symbol is
represented like that. The output of Ex-OR gate is ‘1’, when odd
number of ones present at the inputs. Hence, the output of Ex-OR
gate is also called as an odd function.

b) Ex-NOR gate

The full form of Ex-NOR gate is Exclusive-NOR gate. Its function

is same as that of NOR gate except for some cases, when the inputs
having even number of ones.

The following table shows the truth table of 2-input Ex-NOR gate.

A B Y = A⊙B

0 0 1

0 1 0

1 0 0

1 1 1

Here A, B are the inputs and Y is the output. The truth table of Ex-
NOR gate is same as that of NOR gate for first three rows. The only
modification is in the fourth row. That means, the output is one
instead of zero, when both the inputs are one.

Therefore, the output of Ex-NOR gate is ‘1’, when both inputs are
same. And it is zero, when both the inputs are different.

The following figure shows the symbol of Ex-NOR gate, which is

having two inputs A, B and one output, Y.
Ex-NOR gate operation is similar to that of NOR gate, except for
few combinations of inputs. That’s why the Ex-NOR gate symbol is
represented like that. The output of Ex-NOR gate is ‘1’, when even
number of ones present at the inputs. Hence, the output of Ex-NOR
gate is also called as an even function.

From the above truth tables of Ex-OR & Ex-NOR logic gates, we
can easily notice that the Ex-NOR operation is just the logical
inversion of Ex-OR operation.

Boolean Algebra

Boolean Algebra is used to analyze and simplify the digital (logic)

circuits. It uses only the binary numbers i.e. 0 and 1. It is also called
as Binary Algebra or logical Algebra. Boolean algebra was
invented by George Boole in 1854.

Rule in Boolean algebra

Following are the important rules used in Boolean algebra.

 Variable used can have only two values. Binary 1 for HIGH
and Binary 0 for LOW.
 Complement of a variable is represented by an overbar (-).
Thus, complement of variable B is represented as . Thus
if B = 0 then = 1 and B = 1 then = 0.

 ORing of the variables is represented by a plus (+) sign

between them. For example ORing of A, B, C is represented
as A + B + C.

 Logical ANDing of the two or more variable is represented

by writing a dot between them such as A.B.C. Sometime the
dot may be omitted like ABC.
Boolean Laws

There are six types of Boolean Laws.

a) Commutative law

Any binary operation which satisfies the following expression is

referred to as commutative operation.

Commutative law states that changing the sequence of the variables

does not have any effect on the output of a logic circuit.

b) Associative law

This law states that the order in which the logic operations are
performed is irrelevant as their effect is the same.

c) Distributive law

Distributive law states the following condition.

d) AND law

These laws use the AND operation. Therefore they are called as
AND laws.

e) OR law

These laws use the OR operation. Therefore they are called as OR

laws.