Skyworks Solutions today announced a new line of frequency filters to help engineers minimize interference in Wi-Fi and WiMAX devices.

“The problem is the spectrum is unbelievably crowded and you’re going to have all these technologies stepping on each other,” Skyworks Engineering Director Bradley Barber said. “Certain signals go through at certain frequencies and then you block the heck out of everything else. If you don’t put a filter in, the FCC’s going to come after you.”

To help, Skyworks’ new 33107 and 33108 filters work by emitting bulk acoustic waves and are manufactured with wafer fabrication techniques more commonly used for microchips. That helps keep the final products small, compared to filters using ceramic filters and capacitors, as well as precise, compared to surface acoustic wave filters, Barber said.

The 33107 rejects Wi-Fi signals in the 2.400-2.473 GHz range and accepts WiMAX in the 2.495-2.690 GHz range; the 33108 does the opposite. Both are 3mm², operate in a -20 to 85°C range and are available in a lead-free, RoHS-compliant packages. Samples are available now and the production versions will ship in the fourth quarter, officials said.  The cost is “in the buck range,” Barber said, but orders are based on quantity and technical requirements.

Future versions could ship in various combinations of strengthening or weakening the filters in exchange for strengthening or weakening the loss, Barber explained. There also could be special versions for products in which Wi-Fi and WiMAX are combined via a duplexed antenna, or versions if the technical standards ever change, he noted.

Applications include access points, PC cards, USB dongles, portable computers and femtocells/picocells.