In asynchronous counter we don’t use universal clock, only first flip flop is driven by main clock and the clock input of rest of the following flip flop is driven by output of previous flip flops. We can understand it by following diagram-
It is evident from timing diagram that Q0 is changing as soon as the rising edge of clock pulse is encountered, Q1 is changing when rising edge of Q0 is encountered(because Q0 is like clock pulse for second flip flop) and so on. In this way ripples are generated through Q0,Q1,Q2,Q3 hence it is also called RIPPLE counter.
