In this paper, we present a key configuration of birefringent structure that can be used to target many optical applications such as birefringent filtering, dispersion compensation and laser pulse shaping. The structure consists of N stages placed between a polarizer and an analyser. Each stage is composed of an identical section associated to a variable section whose slow and fast axes are parallel to each other. The optical path difference of the variable section can be controlled by different means which offers several degrees of freedom to make the device versatile