AnsweredAssumed Answered

Absoulte Power Measurements

Question asked by Chris_21 on Jan 28, 2009
Latest reply on Jan 28, 2009 by Dr_joel

Like • Show 0 Likes0
Comment • 1

I am using a PNA-X, N5242 to make some absolute power measurements.

Someone in my department told me that the reading of the absolute power will be the peak power, but I wanted to double check to make sure this correct.

Also, it seem that the raw data that I grab from the analyzer, using COM, seems to be relative to 1 mW. Is this also correct?

Thanks,

Chris

No one else has this question

Outcomes

1 Reply

Dr_joel Jan 28, 2009 11:00 AM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
This depends upon how you cal. If you do nothing unusual, the power read is the average (RMS) power into 50 ohms. If you do a source power cal and use that to do a receiver power cal, then the definition of power is exactly the same as that of the power meter used to do the source power cal, and that is, I think, always RMS power.

If you grab the formatted data, and the format is logmag, then the data will be in dBm (dB relative to 1 mW). If you grab the unformatted data, then it will be in the units of sqrt of power relative to 1 mw, with real and imaginary terms where the power needs to be computed as real squared plus imag squared. I would recommend to always get formatted data to know that the units are either in Watts (linear) or dBm (logmag).
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions

Absoulte Power Measurements

Outcomes

Related Content

Recommended Content