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Best CHEAP LCR meter for small capacitors and inductors?
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mawyatt:
What may work with your DE-5000, and give you a more stable and repeatable results is a SMD fixture for use with a proper lab type LCR meter like shown. You can get name brand fixtures for ~$200 (Tonghui) or no name ones like shown for ~$100.

To connect this to the DE-5000 you'll need to prepare a BNC cable adapter that uses a TL-21 modified with 4 BNC cables to attach to the SMD fixture. We were going to do this but never got around to it since we now have 2 lab grade LCR meters.

Should fit within your $200 budget.

If you need these types of measurements often, then seriously consider a lab grade LCR meter with necessary fixtures. For example the Tonghui TH2830 (only goes to 100KHz tho) supports measurements in the pF and nH range with good results. We have some some in-house references SMD caps like Venkel COG 4.7pF and 10pF that show repeatability better than 0.01pF with this instrument & fixture (a Hioki IN3536 shows similar results over a broader frequency range).

Edit: Also consider the TL-22 Tweezers for the DE-5000.

Best,
2N3055:
I still think that measuring in low nH / pF range would be best done with cheap VNA and proper fixture...
nctnico:

--- Quote from: ranchero on November 22, 2022, 05:24:35 am ---I periodically need to measure small capacitors (under 20pF, sometimes under 5pf) and small inductors (under 150NH).
I currently have DE-5000 which has 100kHz range and should theoretically measure these small L and C just fine. But readings on these small L and C are very unstable even though I'm using TL-21 adapter with very short leads (like 4cm).
Since it's more like a hobby I can't justify purchasing real good LCR meter (like PM6304).
Do you guys think any less expensive LCR meter (let's say, under $200) will do any better than DE-5000? I would be totally happy with 10%-15% tolerance on these small L and C.

Question#2 - what would be best setup to measure small SMD L and C (like 0402, 0603)? Currently I'm using small board with 2 pins, just soldering SMD elements to the board for measuring.

--- End quote ---
There is this XJW01 LCR bridge that is pretty cheap and does proper 4 wire measurements. In my experience it will measure small capacitors just fine. I have not tried inductors. Ideally you'd use an SMD test fixture but that alone will set you back around $200. But a board will also work as a test fixture. In such a setup I'd solder SMA connectors to the board and use short SMA to BNC cables to connect to the XJW01. I don't know what kind of board you are using now but if you have not done that already, you could design one yourself. A double sided board with traces that keep the measurement to be a 4-wire measurement as much as possible would be good and only costs a few dollars to order from JLCPCB, Seeed, etc.
fourfathom:

--- Quote from: mcovington on November 22, 2022, 01:11:22 pm ---NH?  Nanohenries?  That is a TINY inductance.
--- End quote ---

Yes it is, and we deal with nH inductors all the time in RF work, especially as the frequency gets above 10 MHz or so.
mawyatt:

--- Quote from: 2N3055 on November 22, 2022, 02:31:14 pm ---I still think that measuring in low nH / pF range would be best done with cheap VNA and proper fixture...

--- End quote ---

Depends on the frequency range of interest, a VNA is certainly the correct choice for higher frequencies.

For example, if you consider the impedance of 2pF at 100KHz, that's ~796K ohm, a 50 ohm reference VNA will have a difficult time accurately resolving this high an impedance, whereas a quality LCR should work well. However, if we change to say 10MHz, then the impedance drops to ~7.96K, within the range of the VNA and pushing the frequency limits of the LCR. In between these overlapping frequency ranges it becomes a toss up which instrument is the better suited.

Why most of us have a VNA and LCR meter :-+

Best,
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