ADL5501 longterm stability of transfer curve

Question

Hi together, 
 I want to use the ADL5501 to measure the RF power of a CW signal with 450MHz and a power of -5dBm at room temperature. 
 This should give a very low error of the transfer curve "Input(dBm) to Error(dB)" of about +-0.1dB. 
 The measurement should be used for the calibration of the RF instrument. 
 That means the Power Detector ADL5501 needs to be calibrated with another very accurate Bench PowerDetector to determine the transfer curve. 
 The calibration is just done once in the lifetime of the ADL5501. 
 My question is how stable the transfer curve of the ADL5501 is over lifetime of the device? Is it stable over years? Or rather what is the expected error over lifetime without any further calibration?

Thanks a lot! 
 Best regards, 
 DiP

ADIApproved · Accepted Answer

Hello DiP, 
 We do not have long-term drift data for this particular device, ADL5501. Typically there could be some long-term drift of the response curve, perhaps a few tenth's of a dB seems plausible over several years. Just like lab RF power meters and sensors, I'd say that for the most accurate power measurements, some routine periodic calibration schedule would be necessary, similar to a lab-grade instrument. Sorry we cannot offer more precise guidance here.

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ADL5501 longterm stability of transfer curve

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