While the sensor capacitance seems simple, it is quite easy to get a few pF of parasitic capacitance in many physical systems. Generally, parasitic capacitances are not very stable. Because users expect only the inductance of the sensor to vary, variable capacitance causes measurement inaccuracy. For example, with a sensor of 100 µH in parallel with 10.1 pF, an additional 0.5 pF of parasitic capacitance causes the free-air sensor frequency to shift from 5 MHz to 4.88 MHz. This is equivalent to a shift in this inductance of this sensor of 5 µH. If the absolute value of the inductance is the critical measurement, then a 5% error has been introduced by this shift in the parasitic capacitance. If the sensor capacitor is increased to 704 pF, the sensor frequency is nominally 600 kHz, but the same parasitic shift of 0.5 pF causes only produce a shift from 600 Hz to 599.8 kHz; which only appears as an inductance shift of 0.07 µH, which is an error of less than 0.07%.

Some of the sources of parasitic capacitances include the wiring connecting the LDC pins to the inductor, the ESD structures of the LDC input pins, and the actual turns of the inductor. Standard PCB design techniques such as minimizing ground floods near the inductive sensors can reduce the parasitic capacitance.