07-30-2024, 10:22 PM
That is a very pertinent consideration. After thinking for a few minutes, I may have a remedy. Capacitors in parallel are additive, whereas series capacitance is the reciprocal of the sum of reciprocals. If I need a total capacitance of 3.045pF to pair with a 33 μH inductor, I could alternatively use a fixed 2.2 pF capacitor in parallel with a series connected 1 pF trimmer cap and a 1 pF fixed capacitor. This will result in an adjustment range of 2.7pF to 3.3 pF. Still not as fine of a range as it could be, but it does narrow it down a bit. I could also try to select a different inductor in order to give myself a bit more leeway in capacitor selection. Perhaps a 22 μH inductor instead of a 33 μH one. This would allow me to increase the total capacitance ever so slightly.