LOGIC GATES

A Logic Gate is a digital circuit with one or more inputs but only one
output. Logic Gates are the basic building block from which most of the
digital systems are build up. The numbers ‘0’ and ‘1’ represents the two
possible states of a logic circuit. The two states can also be referred as ON
and OFF or HIGH and LOW or TRUE and FALSE.
The basic Logic Gates are OR, AND and NOT gates. All the input
combinations and their corresponding outputs are listed in a table is called
‘Truth Table’.

OR GATE
An OR gate has two or more inputs and one output. If anyone of the
inputs is ‘1’ (or HIGH), the output is ‘1’ (or HIGH). It can be also stated that
if all the inputs are ‘0’ (or LOW), the output is ‘0’ (or LOW). The above
statement holds good for any number of inputs. The general logical
expression (called Boolean equation) for an OR gate is given by
A + B + C + D … + N = Y (It should be read as A OR B OR C OR …)
Its Symbol (2-input) and Truth Table are given below:

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 The Truth Table of a 3-input OR gate is given below:

A B C Y = A+B+C
0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1
0 1 0 1
0 1 1 1
1 0 0 1
1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1
1 1 1 1

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AND GATE
An AND gate has two or more inputs and one output. If anyone of the
inputs is ‘0’ (or LOW), the output is ‘0’ (or LOW). It can be also stated that if
all the inputs are ‘1’ (or HIGH), the output is ‘1’ (or HIGH). The above
statement holds good for any number of inputs. The general logical
expression (called Boolean equation) for an AND gate is given by
A .B .C. D… . N = Y or ABC…N = Y
Its Symbol (2-input) and Truth Table are given below.

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 The Truth Table of a 3-input AND gate is given below:

A B C Y = A.B.C
0 0 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 1 0 0
0 1 1 0
1 0 0 0
1 0 1 0
1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1

NOT GATE
A NOT gate has only one input and one output. It is also called as
Inverter. If the input is ‘0’ (or LOW), the output is ‘1’ (or HIGH) and if the
input is ‘1’ (or HIGH), the output is ‘0’ (or LOW). It can be also stated that,
the output of a NOT gate is the Complement of the input.The logical
expression (called Boolean equation) for a NOT gate is given by
̅=Y
𝑨
Its Symbol and Truth Table are given below.

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 These are the basic logic gates. All other gates are the combination of these gates
which results in NOR, NAND, Bubbled OR, Bubbled AND etc. gates.

NAND GATE
A NAND gate is constructed by connecting a NOT gate to the output of
an AND gate. This is the compliment of the AND gate. A NAND gate has two
or more inputs and one output. If anyone of the inputs is ‘1’ (or HIGH), the
output is ‘0’ (or LOW). It can be also stated that if all the inputs are ‘0’ (or
LOW), the output is ‘1’ (or HIGH). The above statement holds good for any
number of inputs. The general logical expression (called Boolean equation)
for an NAND gate is given by
̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
𝑨. 𝑩. 𝑪 … . 𝑵 = Y or ̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
𝑨𝑩𝑪 … 𝑵 = Y

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 Its Symbol (2-input) and Truth Table are given below.

The Truth Table of a 3-input NAND gate is given below:

A B C Y = ̅̅̅̅̅̅
𝑨𝑩𝑪
0 0 0 1
0 0 1 1
0 1 0 1
0 1 1 1
1 0 0 1
1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1
1 1 1 0

NOR GATE
A NOR gate is constructed by connecting a NOT gate to the output of
an OR gate. This is the complement of the OR gate. A NOR gate has two or
more inputs and one output. If anyone of the inputs is ‘0’ (or LOW), the
output is ‘1’ (or HIGH). It can be also stated that if all the inputs are ‘1’ (or
HIGH), the output is ‘0’ (or LOW). The above statement holds good for any
number of inputs. The general logical expression (called Boolean equation)
for a NOR gate is given by
̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
𝑨 + 𝑩 + 𝑪…+ 𝑵 = Y

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 Its Symbol (2-input) and Truth Table are given below.

The Truth Table of a 3-input NOR gate is given below:

A B C Y = ̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
𝑨+𝑩+𝑪
0 0 0 1
0 0 1 0
0 1 0 0
0 1 1 0
1 0 0 0
1 0 1 0
1 1 0 0
1 1 1 0

Positive and Negative Logic

We always represent a LOW voltage corresponds to ‘0’ state and HIGH voltage
(around 5 volt) corresponds to ‘1’ state. This is known as Positive Logic. In some systems, a
LOW stands for ‘1’ and a HIGH stands for ‘0’. This is known as Negative Logic.

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 Excusive OR GATE (XOR or Ex-OR gate)
An XOR gate is constructed by connecting two AND gates and an OR
gate as shown below.

An XOR gate has two or more inputs and one output. The output of
an XOR gate is ‘1’ (or HIGH), when there are odd number of ‘1’ (or HIGH)
inputs. The above statement holds good for any number of inputs. The
general logical expression (called Boolean equation) for an XOR gate is given
by
A B C… N = Y. For a two input XOR gate, A B=Y

The output of an XOR gate is ̅ .B+A.𝑩

𝑨 ̅=Y
Its Symbol (2-input) and Truth Table are given below.

The Truth Table of a 3-input XOR gate is given below:

A B C Y=A B C
0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1
0 1 0 1
0 1 1 0
1 0 0 1
1 0 1 0
1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1

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Universal Building Block
By connecting NAND and NOR gates in different ways, it is possible to
construct other gates. Because of this reason, NAND and NOR gates are
called as Universal Building Block.

NAND as Universal Gate

The following circuits will explain clearly, the construction of all other
gates using NAND gates.

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Note: DeMorgan’s Theorem will be taught later.

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AND-OR = NAND-NAND

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Note: DeMorgan’s Theorem will be taught later.

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Note: DeMorgan’s Theorem will be taught later.

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OR-AND = NOR-NOR

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