There is no minimum applied power limit for this attenuator; however, the measurement capabilities, such as the noise floor of the setup, will impose practical limits. The upper power limit is 24 dBm at 85°C.
When all of the switches bypass the attenuator block as seen in Figure 22, therefore the insertion loss is the same as the propagation loss (i.e. via the contacts in the bypass mode).For example when using an attenuator at 2.0 GHz, selecting BYPASS mode results in a typical loss of approximately 1.3 dB at 25°C, which is the insertion loss itself.
To achieve an optimum attenuation performance with no signal degradation loss, the signal would be at least the signal added to the insertion loss" (in the by pass mode), if the signal is to be recoverable with no loss.