An inexpensive and simple method for characterizing passive components

Parasitic effects of passive components such as capacitors, resistors, inductors, and ferrites are determined through extraction of their S-parameters using a simple 50-Omega apparatus and a network analyzer, and data from the measurement is processed using a math software package. Error-correction is performed utilizing the ABCD conversion of the S-parameters. It is shown that the error due to the test apparatus can be accounted for by this method. The simple test apparatus and the straightforward algorithm are proven effective in characterizing passive components for their intended and parasitic elements.