Basic electronics and

applications
Module-4 Digital Electronics

Dr. Sayantan Hazra

Associate Professor
• So far covered in this course–
• Introduction to circuit components – resistor, capacitor, inductor, energy sources,
diodes, transistors, IC (integrated circuits).
• Circuit analysis methods – circuit laws, node and mesh analysis etc.
• Amplifiers – especially for sensing based measurements.

• Certain questions to be answered –

• If sensors and amplifiers are properly connected, is that enough to display
some physical quantity? e.g. pulse rate, temperature, ECG waves.
• In other words, if we connect the outcomes of a sensor or amplifier directly to
a display screen, will it display anything useful?
• If memory and data storage units are limited in capacity or size of memory,
is it possible to store the information provided by the outcomes of sensors
and amplifiers?
Digital information
• Information in written form is usually perceived by humans as
• Alphabetic characters – Roman, Devanagari, Mandarin, Tamil, Mayan, Greek etc.
• Decimal numbers
• Punctuation characters – e.g. “ ;,/*” (some introduced in keyboards of gadgets)

• But a digital computing unit interprets information in a different manner

altogether.
• E.g. we humans write messages like “Let us meet at canteen at 6 PM”.
• But the message may be seen by the memory or processor of
smartphone as - 0100 1011 (L), 0100 0101 (e), 0110 1110 (t), …….
0011 1010 (m), 0100 0101 (e), 0100 0101 (e), 0110 1110 (t), ……. ………
0000 0110 (6), 0011 1100 (P), 0011 1010 (M)
Acquired sensor information to digital information?
• Information outcome of a sensor is usually read as –
• Either some numbers (decimal number system)
• Waveform – usually changing with time.
• Usually waveforms have infinite possible numbers within a time interval.
• Not possible to store or process infinite data.
• Must sample the waveform at different time and must choose which time
samples are important.
• Sampling process.
- First step to acquire
digital information.
Let’s convert the ECG wave samples to digital data
• Sampling process – sample the waveform at different time and choose which time
samples are important.
• i.e. more samples or data for the P, QRS, T segment. But a few samples for the
segments with zero value like PR or ST segment.
Let’s convert the ECG wave samples to digital data
Let’s use multiple amplitude levels (instead of 2) while sampling the ECG wave.
Purpose of digital electronic circuits and ICs
• To represent information outcome of a source (e.g. sensor) in digital (e.g.
binary) form.
• To provide a computing platform to perform several calculations (data
processing) on the acquired information.
• To provide a method of conversion from acquired information (waveforms)
to digitally stored information
to information to be displayed on a scope or meter.
• So, for some of the questions asked earlier, digital electronics provide
the solutions like easy storage and display.
Usefulness of digital electronic circuits or systems
• Information acquired using sensors and amplifiers are usually corrupt in
noise
because of wire/cable connections, amplifier circuit noise etc.
• Digital integrated circuits (ICs) and systems (e.g. processors,
microcontrollers) can be used to clean the information out of the noisy
information acquired.
• Thanks to the binary representation of information, ICs can be easily
programmed to provide the information compatible with display device
(scope or LCD screen).
• As computing algorithms are executed in real-time mode in many
applications (e.g. IoT in e-Health, smart home etc.), digital processors
and systems enable the fast and easy computation based on the
instructions of such algorithms.
Connecting Boolean expressions to logical operations
• Normally to perform arithmetic and logical operations like addition,
multiplication, if-else conditions,
• First step is to connect the all possible binary input variables to the binary output
variables using a table.
• This table with all possible binary inputs and outputs, is called a truth table.
• E.g. Truth-table of an 1-bit adder (aka half-adder)
• Self-practice: practice addition
of 2-digit binary numbers A B SUM CARRY
0 0 0 0
0 1 1 0
1 0 1 0
1 1 0 1

• In words, this binary addition can be stated as

• SUM = 1 either if A = 0 and B = 1 or if A = 1 and B = 0
• CARRY = 1 only if A = 1 and B = 1
Connecting Boolean expressions to logical operations
• Logical operations on binary variables can be expressed in terms of
three basic operations:
• OR – for expressing a condition which is satisfied when any one or more
of the given conditions are satisfied.
Boolean expression: A + B (‘+’ is OR operator)
• AND – for expressing a condition which is satisfied only if all of the given
conditions are satisfied.
Boolean expression: A . B (‘.’ is AND operator)
• NOT – for expressing a condition which is satisfied if a given condition is
not satisfied.
Boolean expression: (the overbar denotes a NOT operation)
Symbolic representation of the basic logical operations
or the basic logic gates

• OR – A + B (‘+’ is OR operator)
Symbolic representation of the basic logical operations or the
basic logic gates
• AND – A . B (‘.’ is AND operator)

• NOT – (the overbar denotes a NOT operation)

Reading Assignment
• Reading assignment – read the file, “Basics of logical operations &
Boolean algebra.pdf”. Up to end of section 12.4. Ignore 12.5.
Boolean expressions from truth-table
• Rules for writing Boolean expressions:
• For A = 0, write or variable in complement form. Likewise, write
for B = 0.
• Write A for A = 1, i.e. variable in original form.
• So, if it’s AND operation between A & B and if A = 1, B = 0
then it can be written as or simply as .
Input combinations for two variables:
A B Boolean
expression for Outcome = ‘1’
0 0 A B
0 1 A B
1 0 A B
1 1 A B
 Practice: Finding Boolean expression from a truth-table

Truth-table of an 1-bit adder (aka half-adder)

A B SUM Boolean CARRY Boolean
expression (SUM) expression (CARRY)
0 0 0 0
0 1 1 0
1 0 1 0
1 1 0 1

The Boolean expression for SUM must follow the logical conditions (stated in earlier slide):
SUM = 1 either if A = 0 and B = 1 or if A = 1 and B = 0
i.e. SUM =
IMP: check the output for SUM if A = 0 and B = 0
Practice: converting Boolean expression into digital circuit using Logic
Gates

• For the 1-bit adder or half adder, Boolean expressions for SUM and
CARRY are given by
• SUM =
• CARRY =