On Sun, 18 Jul 2021 at 16:43, Manfred Mornhinweg <manfred@...> wrote:
High value resistors will become capacitive at high frequencies, while low value ones will become inductive.
Both the series inductance and the parallel capacitance of a resistor will of course have an increased effect as the frequency rises, but depending on the resistor's value, and its type/construction/size, one or the other will become problematic first, as you raise the frequency.
So for each type and physical size of resistor, there is a certain range of values that tend to remain resistive to the highest frequencies, while those above degrade into capacitors and those below into inductors. The higher the frequency of operation, the narrower the usable resistance range becomes.
RF circuits are usually designed so that only resistors inside this sweet range are used in RF-carrying paths.
With the kind of quarter watt carbon film resistors I used for many years, and in the range of frequencies I use in my ham activities, typically values from about 15 to 200 ohm work best. Using carbon film resistors in the tens of kiloohm range at RF is futile, and so is the use of resistors around 1? and below.
SMDs are much better at RF than leaded resistors, and the smaller they are, the better. This extends the range of resistance values that can be used at a given frequency. If the resistor is so small that you can't see it, let alone handle it, then it's probably pretty good at UHF! Say, 0201 size.
Thin film SMD resistors are better in this regard (but also less common and more expensive) than the usual thick film resistors.
Wired metal film and metal oxide resistors are made in the same way as wired carbon film ones: Thin resistive layer applied to ceramic rod, spiral-cut to value. Only the resistive material changes. But I suspect that metal film ones, given the lower specific resistance of their material, may get more turns cut into them, and thus become slightly more inductive. At least my measurements with the NanoVNA tend to show slightly higher inductance for metal film resistors, compared to carbon film or metal oxide film.
And lastly, series inductance and parallel capacitance are not the only problems at RF. Change of resistance value happens too, as correctly stated by Zack at the beginning of this thread.
I really enjoy using the NanoVNA now to test every part that goes into my circuits. This has removed a lot of surprises and head-scratching. When I started building RF stuff while still at school, I didn't even suspect anything about all these real-world effects. As a result, my RF circuits often had some strange behavior which I didn't expect nor couldn't explain. The NanoVNA came out about 40 years too late for me... And I think that many people share this thought!