I would like to utilize a power correction routine that uses the Cal Factors from an 8481A Power Sensor. I feel it would be faster than sending the CF corrections programmatically at each frequency change. Currently the software uses a CF of 100% and measures power from 2 - 18GHz [Basicaly no CF Correction].
Q] Is it possible to do this or is there more to it than I realize?
Q] What is the Cal Factor a percentage of?
Q] If I measure a Pout of -10dBm [CF 100%], what would be the correct Pout be w/CF of 95.6% ?
Q] Is it possible to do this or is there more to it than I realize?
Q] What is the Cal Factor a percentage of?
Q] If I measure a Pout of -10dBm [CF 100%], what would be the correct Pout be w/CF of 95.6% ?
Q] Is it possible to do this or is there more to it than I realize?
Q] What is the Cal Factor a percentage of?
In your example, the CF is telling you that the uncorrected power meter reading is 95.7% of the actual power incident on the sensor.
Q] If I measure a Pout of -10dBm [CF 100%], what would be the correct Pout be w/CF of 95.6% ?
If we convert -10dBm to a linear value of 100 uWatts, the corrected power is:
100uW / 0.956 = 104.6uWatt
or, you could convert the CF to a log value:
CF(dB) = 10log(1/CF)
The 95.6% CF becomes 0.1954dB
just add this to the uncorrected dBm value, the corrected reading is -9.8046dBm (yes, these are too many significant figures!)
The next common question comes up when you have a measurement frequency that is between two cal factor frequencies. In this case, just use linear interpolation to find a good "intermediate" CF value.