Bias Tee Component Calculator — Inductor & Capacitor Sizing with SRF Feasibility Check

Posted by GPIO Labs on

GPIO LABS · RF TOOLS

A bias tee's inductor and capacitor need reactance values set well apart from your system impedance to work correctly — but a single L/C pair only covers a limited frequency range before the inductor's self-resonant frequency (SRF) causes it to fail. Enter your frequency range and impedance below to size both components and check whether a single pair will actually work for your design.

Set equal to the minimum for a single-frequency (narrowband) design
System impedance
Reactance margin
MIN INDUCTANCE (L)
MIN CAPACITANCE (C)
XC (low)Z0XL (high)
How is this calculated?

Both components are sized against your minimum frequency, since that's where each has the hardest job: the inductor's reactance is at its lowest there (hardest to block RF), and the capacitor's reactance is at its highest there (hardest to pass RF). If both work at f_min, they only get better as frequency rises — at least until a real inductor's self-resonant frequency intervenes, which is what the feasibility check above accounts for separately.

Target reactances are set from your margin and impedance choice, then solved for component value: