LOGIC GATES

Logic gates are the basis of digital electronics.

They are the basic building blocks of the digital computer.
Logic gates have one or more inputs and only one output.
The output is active only for certain input combinations.
Logic gates are also called switches.
Since the output value depends only on the present value of inputs and not past values, it is also
known as combinational gate.

Logic gates are available on special ICs (chips) which usually contain several gates of the same type.
There are several families of logic ICs and they can be split into two groups:

4000 Series

74 Series

BASIC GATES
1. NOT gate

The NOT gate performs the basic logical function called inversion or complementation.

NOT gate is also called inverter.

The purpose of this gate is to convert one logic level into the opposite logic level.

It has one input and one output.

When a HIGH level is applied to an inverter, a LOW level appears on its output and vice versa

Def: NOT gate changes a 0 input to 1 and 1 input to 0.

Logic symbol

Inverter or NOT gate Truth table

Input
1
0

Output
0
1

Logic Expression
If X is the input, then output Y can be represented mathematically as Y = X'.

The 7404 IC package contains six independent positive logic NOT GATES (INVERTERS).

Pin no. 7 GND

14 - +Vcc

2. AND GATE

The AND gate performs logical multiplication, commonly known as AND function.
The AND gate has two or more inputs and single output.
The output of AND gate is HIGH only when all its inputs are HIGH (i.e. even if one input is
LOW, Output will be LOW).
Def: The AND gate with two or more inputs performs logical multiplication and produces a single
output. Logic AND gate output is TRUE(1) only if all its inputs are TRUE (1).

Logic Expression
If A and B are two inputs, then output Y can be represented mathematically as Y = A.B, Here dot (.)
denotes the AND operation.
Y=AB

Pin diagram of IC 7408

3. OR GATE

The OR gate performs logical addition, commonly known as OR function.

The OR gate has two or more inputs and single output.

The output of OR gate is HIGH only when any one of its inputs are HIGH (i.e. even if one input is
HIGH, Output will be HIGH).

DEF: The OR gate with two or more inputs performs logical addition and produces a single output. OR gate output is
HIGH(1) if either of the inputs is HIGH (1) or if all the inputs are HIGH(1). If all the inputs are LOW (0), the output is
LOW (0).

Logic symbol

Truth Table

Logical Expression
If A and B are two inputs, then output C can be represented mathematically as

C = A+B.
Pin diagram of IC 7432

Exclusive OR Gate (X-OR Gate)

The XOR Gate takes two or more inputs but

produces one output signal.

XOR Gate produces output signal 1(on) for only

those input signal combinations which have odd number of 1's(on signals).

DEF : The output of XOR gate is LOW if both inputs are the same and the out is HIGH if any
one of the inputs is HIGH.

The

sign stands for XOR Operation.

Truth Table:

Logic Symbol:

Boolean Expression:

The equivalent SOP expression is Y=A.B+A.B

Pin diagram of IC 7486

Exclusive NOR Gate (XNOR Gate)

The XNOR Gate takes two or more input signals and returns 1(on) when the input combination
has even number of 1's.

XNOR Gate gives one output signal.

XNOR stands for exclusive NOR and is an XOR gate with its output inverted.

DEF: The output of XNOR gate is at 1 when the inputs have the same value and 0 when they are
different.
Logic Symbol

XNOR Gate is equivalent to an inverted XOR Gate, i.e. XOR Gate followed by a NOT Gate. It is also
called inverted XOR Gate.

Truth Table

Boolean Expression
Y=A B
The equivalent SOP expression is Y=A B + AB

Figure : 747266 integrated circuit provides four two-inputs XNOR gates.

UNIVERSAL GATES

Universal gates are those gates, by using which can implement the functionalities of other gates such as
AND, OR and NOT etc.
Two types of universal gates are:
1. NAND gate
2. NOR gate

3. NAND GATE

The NAND Gate takes two or more input signals and returns 0(OFF) if all of the input signals are
1(ON). NAND Gate returns one output.

DEF: NAND gate output is HIGH(1) if all its inputs are LOW(0) or if either of the input is LOW (0).

NAND Gate is basically a combination of NOT and AND gates. Thus it is also known as inverted
AND gate.

Truth Table:

Boolean Expression:

Pin diagram of IC 7400

NOR GATE

It has two or more inputs and only one output.

The output of NOR gate is HIGH when any all its inputs are LOW (i.e. even if one input is HIGH,
output will be LOW).

DEF: NOR gate output is HIG (1) if all its inputs are LOW (00. The output is LOW (0) if either of the
inputs or all its are HIGH (1).
Logic Symbol

NOR gate is basically a combination of NOT and OR gates. It can also be referred to as inverted OR Gate.

Truth Table:

Boolean Expression:

Pin diagram of IC 7402

NAND as Universal gate

The universality of the NAND gate means that it can be used as an Inverter (NOT) and
combinations of NAND gates can be used to implement the AND, OR and NOR operations.
i)

NOT Gate using NAND:

A NAND gate can be used as NOT gate with a single input, by connecting all the inputs of the NAND
gate together.

ii)

AND gate using NAND

iii)

OR gate using NAND

iv)

NOR gate using NAND

NOR as Universal Gate

The universality of the NOR gate means that it can be used as an Inverter (NOT) and
combinations of NOR gates can be used to implement the AND, OR and NAND operations.

IV)

i)

NOT gate using NOR

ii)

OR gate using NOR

iii)

AND Using NOR

NAND gate using NOR