In accordance with an embodiment, a method of operating an RF system includes filtering a first wideband RF signal using a wideband filter bank. Filtering the first RF signal includes separating the first wideband RF signal into frequency cluster signals, where each frequency cluster signal of the frequency cluster signals includes different frequency ranges, the first wideband RF signal includes multiple RF bands, and each of the different frequency ranges comprises a plurality of RF bands of the multiple RF bands. The method further includes band stop filtering at least one of the frequency cluster signals to produce a band stopped frequency cluster signal.

A notch filter includes a first inductor coupled between an input node and an output node, a dual-resonator structure coupled between the input node and the output node, and a second inductor coupled between the dual-resonator structure and ground, and a bandpass filter includes a capacitor coupled between an input node and an output node, and a dual-resonator structure coupled between the input node, the output node, and ground.

In accordance with an embodiment, a method of operating an RF system includes filtering a wideband RF signal using an adjustable center frequency bandpass filter to produce a filtered RF signal; amplifying the filtered RF signal to produce an amplified RF signal; and band stop filtering the amplified RF signal to produce a band stopped RF signal.

Embodiments of resonator circuits and modulating resonators and are described generally herein. One or more acoustic wave resonators may be coupled in series or parallel to generate tunable filters. One or more acoustic wave resonances may be modulated by one or more capacitors or tunable capacitors. One or more acoustic wave modules may also be switchable in a filter. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

A tunable notch filter is disclosed with a first acoustic resonator coupled in series with a first inductive element between a filter input node and a filter output node. A first capacitor is coupled in parallel with the first acoustic resonator and the first inductive element. In at least one embodiment, the first capacitor is configured to have variable capacitance that is electronically tunable by way of an electronic controller. A second acoustic resonator is coupled in series with a second inductive element between the filter output node and a signal ground node. A second capacitor is coupled in parallel with the second inductive element. In at least one embodiment, the second capacitor is electronically tunable. The tunable notch filter is configured to provide a highly selective notch filter response between the filter input node and the filter output node with high attenuation.

A method for the batch production of acoustic wave filters comprises: synthesizing N theoretical filters, each filter defined by a set of j theoretical resonator(s) having a triplet C.sub.0ij,eq, .sub.rij,eq and .sub.aij,eq, these parameters grouped into subsets; determining a reference resonator structure for each subset, naturally having a resonant frequency .sub.r,ref, where .sub.aij,eq<.sub.r,ref<.sub.rij,eq; determining, for each theoretical resonator, an elementary building block comprising an intermediate resonator R.sub.ij, a parallel reactance Xp.sub.ij and/or a series reactance Xs.sub.ij, the intermediate resonator R.sub.ij having a triplet C.sub.0ij, .sub.r,ref and .sub.a,ref, the parameters C.sub.0ij, Xpij and/or Xs.sub.ij defined so the elementary building block has a triplet: C.sub.0ij,eq, .sub.rij,eq and .sub.aij,eq; determining the geometrical dimensions of the actual resonators R.sub.ij of the filters so they have a capacitance C.sub.0ij; producing each actual resonator; associating series and/or parallel reactances with actual resonators in order to form the elementary building blocks.

In an array of single crystal acoustic resonators, the effective coupling coefficient of first and second strained single crystal filters are individually tailored in order to achieve desired frequency responses. In a duplexer embodiment, the effective coupling coefficient of a transmit band-pass filter is lower than the effective coupling coefficient of a receive band-pass filter of the same duplexer. The coefficients can be tailored by varying the ratio of the thickness of a piezoelectric layer to the total thickness of electrode layers or by forming a capacitor in parallel with an acoustic resonator within the filter for which the effective coupling coefficient is to be degraded. Further, a strained piezoelectric layer can be formed overlying a nucleation layer characterized by nucleation growth parameters, which can be configured to modulate a strain condition in the strained piezoelectric layer to adjust piezoelectric properties for improved performance in specific applications.

An acoustic impedance transformation circuit and related apparatus are provided. In aspects discussed herein, the acoustic impedance transformation circuit can be configured to transform an input impedance into an output impedance higher than the input impedance. In this regard, the acoustic impedance transformation circuit can be provided in an apparatus to enable impedance matching between two electrical circuits. As a result, it may be possible to reduce signal reflection resulting from impedance mismatch between the two circuits, thus helping to improve performance of the apparatus.

An acoustic structure is provided. The acoustic structure includes an acoustic resonator structure configured to resonate in a series resonance frequency (e.g., passband frequency) to pass a signal, or cause a series capacitance to block the signal in a parallel resonance frequency (e.g., stopband frequency). The parallel resonance frequency may become higher than the series resonance frequency when the tunable capacitance is lesser than or equal to two times of the series capacitance (C.sub.Tune2C.sub.0), or lower than the series resonance frequency when the tunable capacitance is greater than two times of the series capacitance (C.sub.Tune>2C.sub.0). In this regard, the acoustic structure can be configured to include a tunable reactive circuit to generate the tunable capacitance (C.sub.Tune) to adjust the parallel resonance frequency. As such, it may be possible to flexibly configure the acoustic resonator structure to block the signal in desired stopband frequencies.

An acoustic impedance transformation circuit and related apparatus are provided. In aspects discussed herein, the acoustic impedance transformation circuit can be configured to transform an input impedance into an output impedance higher than the input impedance. In this regard, the acoustic impedance transformation circuit can be provided in an apparatus to enable impedance matching between two electrical circuits. As a result, it may be possible to reduce signal reflection resulting from impedance mismatch between the two circuits, thus helping to improve performance of the apparatus.