1. A radio frequency (RF) conductive medium for conducting an RF signal at a desired frequency of operation, the medium comprising:
a plurality of continuous conductive pathways disposed in a first direction and between a first protective layer and a second protective layer; and
a dielectric material periodically surrounding each of the plurality of continuous conductive pathways in the first direction, the dielectric material configured to periodically insulate each of the plurality of conductive pathways from propagating RF energy in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the dielectric material further configured to provide mechanical support for each of the plurality of continuous conductive pathways,
wherein each continuous conductive pathway of the plurality of continuous conductive pathways has a conductive cross sectional area no greater than a skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d at the desired frequency of operation.
2. The RF conductive medium of claim 1 further comprising a solvent configured to maintain the dielectric material in a viscous state during application of the dielectric material onto a surface of at least one of the first protective layer and the second protective layer, the solvent further configured to evaporate in response to being stimulated by a heat source.
3. The RF conductive medium of claim 1 wherein the plurality of continuous conductive pathways comprises a nanomaterial composed of an element that is at least one of: silver, copper, aluminum, and gold.
4. The RF conductive medium of claim 1 wherein the plurality of continuous conductive pathways comprises a structure that is at least one of: wire, ribbon, tube, and flake.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d is calculated by:
\u03b4
=
2
\u2062
\u03c1
(
2
\u2062
\u03c0
\u2062
\u2062
f
)
\u2062
(
\u03bc
0
\u2062
\u03bc
r
)
\u2248
503
\u2062
\u03c1
\u03bc
r
\u2062
f
where \u03bc0 is a permeability of a vacuum, \u03bcr is a relative permeability of a nanomaterial of conductive media forming the plurality of continuous conductive pathways, p is a resistivity of the nanomaterial of the conductive media, and f is the desired frequency of operation.
6. The RF conductive medium of claim 1 wherein the desired frequency of operation corresponds to at least one of: a desired resonant frequency of a cavity filter, a desired resonant frequency of an antenna, a cutoff frequency of a waveguide, a desired operational frequency range of a coaxial cable, and combined operational frequency ranges of an integrated structure including a cavity filter and an antenna.
7. The RF conductive medium of claim 1 wherein the skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d is in a range of 50 nm-4000 nm.
8. The RF conductive medium of claim 1 wherein the skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d is in a range of 1000 nm-3000 nm.
9. The RF conductive medium of claim 1 wherein the skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d is in a range of 1500 nm-2500 nm.
10. The RF conductive medium of claim 1, where the first protective layer includes a material that is non-conductive and minimally absorptive to RF energy at the desired frequency of operation.
11. The RF conductive medium of claim 10 wherein the material is at least one of: a polymer coating and fiberglass coating.
12. A radio frequency (RF) conductive medium for conducting a RF signal at a desired frequency of operation, the medium comprising:
a plurality of continuous conductive pathways disposed between a first protective layer and a second protective layer, each of the plurality of continuous conductive pathways comprising a material that is conductive in a first direction and weakly conductive in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and
a layer of RF inert material surrounding the plurality of continuous conductive pathways, the RF inert material being non-conductive and minimally absorptive to RF energy at a desired frequency of operation, the layer of RF inert material configured to secure the plurality of continuous conductive pathways onto a dielectric surface of at least one of the first protective layer and the second protective layer,
wherein each continuous conductive pathway of the plurality of continuous conductive pathways has a conductive cross sectional area no greater than a skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d at the desired frequency of operation.
13. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 further comprising a binding agent to bind the RF conductive medium to the dielectric surface.
14. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 further comprising a solvent configured to maintain the layer of RF inert material in a viscous state during application of the layer of RF inert material onto the dielectric surface, the solvent further configured to evaporate in response to being stimulated by a heat source.
15. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 wherein each of the plurality of continuous conductive pathway comprises a nanomaterial that is at least one of: carbon and graphene.
16. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 wherein each of the plurality of continuous conductive pathway comprises at least one of: single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), multi-walled nanotubes (MWCNTs), and graphene.
17. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 wherein the skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d is calculated by:
\u03b4
=
2
\u2062
\u03c1
(
2
\u2062
\u03c0
\u2062
\u2062
f
)
\u2062
(
\u03bc
0
\u2062
\u03bc
r
)
\u2248
503
\u2062
\u03c1
\u03bc
r
\u2062
f
where \u03bc0 is a permeability of a vacuum, \u03bcr is a relative permeability of a nanomaterial of conductive media forming the plurality of continuous conductive pathways, p is a resistivity of the nanomaterial of the conductive media, and f is the desired frequency of operation.
18. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 wherein the desired frequency of operation corresponds to at least one of: a desired resonant frequency of a cavity filter, a desired resonant frequency of an antenna, a cutoff frequency of a waveguide, a desired operational frequency range of a coaxial cable, and combined operational frequency ranges of an integrated structure including a cavity filter and an antenna.
19. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 wherein the skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d is in the range of 50 nm-4000 nm.
20. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 wherein the skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d is in the range of 1000 nm-3000 nm.
21. The RF conductive medium of claim 12 wherein the skin depth \u201c\u03b4\u201d is in the range of 1500 nm-2500 nm.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A hardware data structure configured to track a plurality of ordered transactions in a multi-transactional hardware design, the hardware data structure comprising:
a counter configured to store a value that tracks a number of in-flight transactions in the hardware design;
a table configured to track an age of each of the in-flight transactions using the counter; and
control logic configured to verify that a transaction response issued by the hardware design has been issued in a predetermined order based on the tracked ages of the in-flight transactions in the table.
2. The hardware data structure of claim 1, wherein verifying that the transaction response has been issued in the predetermined order comprises verifying that the transaction response corresponds to the oldest in-flight transaction based on the tracked ages of the in-flight transactions in the table.
3. The hardware data structure of claim 1, wherein the table comprises an entry for each transaction of the plurality of ordered transactions, each entry comprising information indicating the age of the transaction when the transaction is an in-flight transaction.
4. The hardware data structure of claim 3, wherein each entry further comprises information indicating whether the transaction is currently in-flight.
5. The hardware data structure of claim 4, wherein the control logic comprises a request detection module configured to detect when a new transaction is in-flight by monitoring one or more control signals of an interface of the hardware design.
6. The hardware data structure of claim 5, wherein the control logic further comprises a counter control module, the counter control module configured, in response to the request detection module detecting that a new transaction is in-flight, to increment the counter value.
7. The hardware data structure of claim 5, wherein the control logic further comprises a table control module configured, in response to the request detection module detecting that a new transaction is in-flight, to update the entry of the table corresponding to the new in-flight transaction so that the information indicating the age of the new in-flight transaction is set to the counter value.
8. The hardware data structure of claim 7, wherein the table control module is further configured, in response to the request detection module detecting that a new transaction is in-flight, to update the entry of the table corresponding to the new in-flight transaction so that the information indicating whether the transaction is in-flight indicates the transaction is in-flight.
9. The hardware data structure of claim 4, wherein the control logic comprises a response detection module configured to detect when a transaction response has been issued by monitoring one or more control signals of an interface of the hardware design.
10. The hardware data structure of claim 9, wherein the control logic further comprises a counter control module configured, in response to the response detection module detecting that a transaction response has been issued, to decrement the counter value.
11. The hardware data structure of claim 9, wherein the control logic further comprises a table control module configured, in response to the response detection module detecting that a transaction response has been issued, to update the entry of the table corresponding to the transaction response so that the information indicating whether the transaction is in-flight indicates the transaction is not in-flight.
12. The hardware data structure of claim 11, wherein the table control module is further configured, in response to the response detection module detecting that a transaction response has been issued, to decrement the information indicating the age of the transaction in the table for each in-flight transaction.
13. The hardware data structure of claim 9, wherein the control logic further comprises an error detection module configured, in response to the response detection module detecting that a transaction response has been issued, to verify that the transaction response has been issued in the predetermined order based on the information indicating the age of the transaction of the entry of the table corresponding to the transaction response.
14. The hardware data structure of claim 13, wherein the error detection module is configured to verify that the transaction response has been issued in the predetermined order using one or more assertions written in an assertion-based language.
15. The hardware data structure of claim 14, wherein the error detection module verifies that the transaction response has been issued in the predetermined order by evaluating the one or more assertions for one or more states of the hardware design.
16. The hardware data structure of claim 14, wherein the error detection module verifies that the transaction response has been issued in the predetermined order by evaluating the one or more assertions as input stimuli are applied to the hardware design.
17. The hardware data structure of claim 14, wherein the error detection module is configured to verify that the transaction response has been issued in the predetermined order using one or more assertions under one or more fairness constraints.
18. The hardware data structure of claim 3, wherein each transaction comprises a transaction ID and the entry of the table corresponding to a particular transaction is identified by the transaction ID.
19. A method of tracking a plurality of ordered transactions in a multi-transactional hardware design, the method comprising:
tracking a number of in-flight transactions in the hardware design using a counter;
tracking an age of each of the in-flight transactions in a table using the counter; and
verifying that a transaction response issued by the hardware design has been issued in a predetermined order based on the tracked ages of the in-flight transactions in the table.
20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that when executed cause at least one processor to:
track a number of in-flight transactions in a multi-transactional hardware design using a counter;
track an age of each of the in-flight transactions in a table using the counter; and
verify that a transaction response issued by the multi-transactional hardware design has been issued in a predetermined order based on the tracked ages of the in-flight transactions in the table.