Digital integrated circuits are used to perform logical
operations. Some examples of digital integrated circuits are logic gates,
flip-flops, registers and counters. The basic building blocks of these circuits
are NAND and NOR gates. Some important characteristics of digital integrated
circuits are operating speed, power dissipation, logic flexibility, noise
immunity, noise generation, availability of complex functions, supply voltage,
operating temperature range, Fan-in/Fan-out and cost. Digital integrated
circuits possess high operating speed. Operating speed is measured in terms of
propagation delay and pair delay. Low power dissipation is a feature of Digital
integrated circuits. Logic flexibility includes wired logic capability,
availability of complement outputs, ability to drive other logic forms, I/O
facilities, capability to drive nonstandard loads etc. Noise immunity is a
great feature of Digital integrated circuits. Noise such as external noise,
poer line noise, signal current noise, cross-talk noise, transmission line
reflections etc. can be minimized by the techniques like appropriate circuit
lay-out, shielding, grounding, decoupling, termination and matching. A complex
function which is a grouping of basic gates in a single package is a special
feature of Digital integrated circuits. Supply voltage should be of great
standard and operating temperature range should be wide in Digital integrated
circuits.
