MEMS technology has allowed advances in microelectronics to be used to produce deformable microsystems the mechanical behavior of which modulates electrical behavior.
Various actuators and switches are described in the prior art. Thus, the prior art discloses MEMS structures that use a movable conductive element and a number of fixed current carrying contact terminals advantageously allowing a larger current to be carried relative to prior devices in which the current was made to flow through movable conductive elements. The fields of radio communication and radio navigation make use of low power transceiver filter systems for highly linear co-site filtering. Co-site or proximity operation is in particular obtained when a receiver capturing a weak signal is located nearby a high-power emitter.
Co-site filters have a very substantial impact on power consumption and bulk. Most of the systems currently used have the following problems:                unsatisfactory filtering system linearity when received and filtered signal power varies;        unsatisfactory band coverage depending on the application;        unsatisfactory selectivity, which is necessarily improved by increasing quality factor;        parasitic amplitude/phase modulation, which may appear depending on the amount of jamming at reception. This parasitic amplitude/phase modulation affects the measurement error, known by the acronym EVM (error vector magnitude), used to quantify the performance of a digital radio emitter or receiver; and        substantial bulk and a substantial power consumption when live to RF power.        
To solve these various problems it is known to use a varactor diode based filter, however varactor diodes are nonlinear components that have a low immunity to jamming. It is also known to use capacitors switched by relay or p-i-n (positive-intrinsic-negative) diode. However, switching times are too long for this type of switching. In the case where p-i-n diodes are used power consumption is high.
The various solutions known in the art do not adequately solve the following problems:                the presence of an intentional or unintentional jamming signal at a frequency relatively near the frequency of the useful signal;        the linearity of the filtering system whatever the frequency used.        
The technical teachings of patent application US 2005/0017824 relate to a filter comprising two elements 8, 9 placed in parallel with each other and connected via a coupling element 18 that is a capacitor. The first conductor 8 and the second conductor 9 are rectangular features placed in parallel and spaced apart by a given distance. An element 10, which is a third conductor, is located between the first and the second elements 8, 9. The coupling capacitor 18 is connected to the two elements 8 and 9.
Document KR 2001 0094509, a summary of which is available in the Espacenet patent database, describes a microstrip capacitor.
The document entitled “adjustable bandwidth filter design based on interdigital capacitors” IEEE microwave and wireless components letters, pages 16-18, XP011199157 relates to microstrip filters.
The document entitled “a microstrip bandpass filter with ultra-wide stopband” IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, pages 1468-1472, XP011215082 also describes a microstrip technology. FIG. 1 shows a filter structure that comprises a number of “open stubs” and “interdigital” capacitors.
The document entitled “corrugated microstrip coupled lines for constant absolute bandwidth tunable filters” IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, Vol. 58, No. 4, (2010 Apr. 1), pages 956-963, XP011305950 for example shows a three-pole filter in FIG. 6. The idea in this paper is to demonstrate that “corrugated” microstrip lines can also be used to control coupling coefficient, enabling constant absolute bandwidth filtering. FIG. 8 shows a model of a miniaturized two-pole electrical circuit.
Patent EP 1 953 914 relates to a multiplexer and a diplexer.
Patent application US 2002/0149448 relates to a device allowing losses in ferromagnetic components to be characterized.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds