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Digital Electronics Basics - Chapter 2: Flip-Flops
Publish Date: mar 27, 2013 | 2 Valutazioni | 5.00 di 5 | Print | Submit your review
Overview
The Digital Electronics Basics series present the fundamental theories and concepts taught at entry level electronics
courses at both 2 year and 4 year institutions. This series of content provides examples to professors to enable them to
easily teach concepts to students, who can develop a solid underlying knowledge of digital electronics using NI
solution. This series focuses on some of the basic theory as well as providing the NI Multisim circuits to enable
practical implementation and experimentation as homework for students.
Table of Contents
1. In this Chapter
2. Example Courses
3. Flip-Flops
4. Example Problem
5. NI Suggested Solution
6. References
1. In this Chapter
We begin this chapter by studying the basic flip-flop and understanding the fundamentals. Then we examine two
example circuits which can be used by any educator or student to verify our results using NI Multisim.
If you do not have NI Multisim installed on your computer you can download a free 30 day evaluation at
http://www.ni.com/multisim/try/

2. Example Courses
Listed below are example courses that teach this concept at their schools.
Course School Learn More
Name
Digital Macomb http://www.macomb.edu/noncms/search/courses/coursekey.asp?coursekey=ELEC-1211
Electronics Community
Basics College
Digital Henry Ford https://my.hfcc.edu/site_manager/Catalog_Manager/courses/view_course1.asp?id=21589
Circuits 1 Community
College

3. Flip-Flops
In sequential logic operations, flip-flops are the basic memory elements. There are multiple types of Flip-Flops, we will
review a couple here: [1]
SR Type (Set/Reset): Basic storage device that holds (remembers) data until reset occurs. It is triggered to high by the
Set S signal and will retain the data until it is resets by the Reset Signal R [1].

[2]
JK Flip-Flop: This flip-flop has two inputs usually named J and K (hence the name). If the two input signals are the
same, no changes occur, however when they differ from each other then the output Q will take the value of J at the
next edge of the clock [1].

[2]
4. Example Problem
Let us start by examining an example circuit using the SR Flip Flop in a phase detector circuit.
STEP 1: Using NI Multisim, open circuit file sr_flip_flop.ms12, you will notice the circuit below:
STEP 2: Double-click on each of the Oscilloscope instruments XSC1 and XSC2 to open their front panels, then run the
simulation. You will notice the graphs below:
STEP 3: Stop the simulation. Then, double-click on the Out of Phase source V2 to open its properties. Change the
"Delay time" value to equal 0.15ms and then to 0.7 ms and run the simulation for each time.
You will notice that the output voltage will increase as the two signals get farther out of phase.
Delay time = 0.15 ms:

Delay time = 0.7 ms:

Let us now examine an example circuit utilizing the JK Flip Flop in a divide by 10 ripple down counter.

STEP 4: Using NI Multisim, open circuit file jk_flip_flop.ms12, you will notice the circuit below [3]:

Answer Sub-Step 1: Determine the output states for each flipflop and draw the diagram in comparison to the clock
signal.
Based on the characteristics of the JK Flip Flop and their connections in the above circuit, we can draw the output
signals as follows:
[3] Let us now confirm our results using NI Multisim.

STEP 5: Using circuit file jk_flip_flop.ms12, double click on the Logic Analyzer instrument to open the front panel,
then run the simulation. You will notice the results below which confirm our drawing of the signals above:

5. NI Suggested Solution
National Instruments offers a number of products that combine to provide a scalable and powerful teaching platform for
educators. The solution includes:
NI Multisim circuit teaching environment: Combining an intuitive circuit definition environment, with powerful SPICE
simulation technology, educators can use NI Multisim to easily teach the ins-and-outs of circuits in a safe environment.
NI ELVIS teaching and measurement platform allows educators to provide students with a compact, all-in-one unit for
their measurement and analysis needs. Combining an oscilloscope, function generator, DMM, bode analyzer and 8 other
instruments into a small platform; it simplifies the laboratory experience for students and lab instructors.

6. References
[1] Georgia State University. Department of Physics and Astronomy. Flip-Flops
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electronic/flipflop.html
(12/03/2013)
[2] University of Colorado Boulder. Department of Physics. Digital Electronics I: Logic, Flip-Flops, and Clocks.
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phys3330/phys3330_sp12/phys3330_sp12/Lab_Manual_files/Exp_9_Spring12_re.pdf
(12/03/2013)
[3] The Ohio State University. Department of Physics. Lecture 10
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~gan/teaching/summer04/Lec10.pdf
(12/03/2013)