LATCHES

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 Latches

A latch is a temporary storage device

Has two stable states i.e SET or RESET (bistable).

Uses feedback arrangement. (output is fed back to input)

It is a basic form of memory.

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 S-R (Set-Reset) Latch
The
NoteS-Rthat
(Set-Reset) latch of
the output is the most
each basicistype.
gate connected to the input
Itofcan
opposite gate. from NOR gates or NAND gates.
be constructed

With NOR gates, the latch responds to active-HIGH inputs.

This produces a regenerative feedback that is the core
characteristic
With ofitall
NAND gates, latches
responds to and flip flops.
active-LOW inputs.

R S
Q Q

Q Q
S R
NOR Active-HIGH Latch NAND Active-LOW Latch

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 Active-HIGH S-R Latch

The active-HIGH S-R latch is in a stable (latched) condition

when both inputs are LOW.
0 R 1
0
Assume the latch is initially RESET Q
(Q = 0) and the inputs are at their Latch
inactive level (0). To SET the latch initially
(Q = 1), a momentary HIGH signal RESET
0
1
is applied to the S input while the R Q
0 S
remains LOW.
0 R 1
0
To RESET the latch (Q = 0), a Q
momentary HIGH signal is Latch
applied to the R input while the S initially
remains LOW. SET
1
0
Q
0 S

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 Active-HIGH S-R Latch

Truth Table:

INPUTS OUTPUTS
COMMENTS
S R Q Q
0 0 Qo Qo No change

1 0 1 0 SET

0 1 0 1 RESET

1 1 1 1 Invalid State

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 Active-LOW S-R Latch

The active-LOW S-R latch is in a stable (latched) condition

when both inputs are HIGH.

Assume the latch is initially RESET 1 S 1

0
Q
(Q = 0) and the inputs are at their
Latch
inactive level (1). To SET the latch initially
(Q = 1), a momentary LOW signal RESET
is applied to the S input while the R 1
0
1 R Q
remains HIGH.
To RESET the latch a momentary 1 S 1
0
Q
LOW is applied to the R input
Latch
while S is HIGH. initially
Never apply an active set and 1 SET
0
Q
reset at the same time (invalid). 1R

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 Active-LOW S-R Latch

Truth Table:

INPUTS OUTPUTS
COMMENTS
S R Q Q
1 1 Qo Qo No change

0 1 1 0 SET

1 0 0 1 RESET

0 0 1 1 Invalid State

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 The Gated S-R Latch
A gated S-R Latch is a variation on the basic S-R Latch.

The S and R inputs control the state to which the latch will go when a
HIGH level is applied to the EN input.
The latch will not change until EN is HIGH
As long as it remains HIGH, the output is controlled by the state of the S
and R inputs.
S
Q

EN

Q
R

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 The Gated S-R Latch

Truth Table:

INPUTS OUTPUTS
COMMENTS
S R EN Q Q
0 0 1 Qo Qo No change

1 0 1 1 0 SET

0 1 1 0 1 RESET

1 1 1 1 1 Invalid State

X X 0 Qo Qo No change

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 The Gated S-R Latch

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 The Gated D-Latch
The D latch is an variation of the S-R latch but combines
the S and R inputs into a single D input as shown:

D D Q
Q

EN EN

Q
Q

A simple rule for the D latch is:

Q follows D when the Enable is active.

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 The Gated D-Latch
Operation:
Assume the latch is initially RESET (Q = 0) and the inputs are at their
inactive level (0). To SET the latch (Q = 1), a momentary HIGH
signal is applied to the D input.

D
Q

EN

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 The Gated D-Latch
Operation:
To RESET the latch (Q = 0), a momentary LOW signal is applied
to the D input of the latch.

D
Q

EN

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 The Gated D-Latch

The truth table for the D latch summarizes its operation. If

EN is LOW, then there is no change in the output and it is
latched.

INPUTS OUTPUTS
COMMENTS
D EN Q Q
X 0 Qo Qo No change

1 1 1 0 SET

0 1 0 1 RESET

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 The Gated D-Latch

Floyd, Digital
Floyd, DigitalFundamentals, th th
Fundamentals,1010 eded © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved