US Patent 7180391 Resonator filter

The invention relates to a tunable resonator filter. In each resonator cavity of the filter there is a movable dielectric tuning element (728; 748) to adjust the resonator's natural frequency. The tuning elements are advantageously arranged to be moved by a common control implemented by a rod (708) joining them together, to shift the filter's band through equal displacements of the natural frequencies of the resonators. When the tuning element is moved horizontally sidewards from the resonator (710; 720; 730; 740; 750; 760) axis, the electrical length and natural frequency of the resonator change. In that case, when sub-bands are used it is not necessary to tune the filters separately for each sub-band in the stage of manufacture, as the sub-band can be chosen when the filter is put into use. The tuning elements can be movable also in each resonator separately, to implement the basic tuning in connection with the manufacture of the filter. The basic tuning can be automated, in other words it can be made without inconvenient handwork.