PID Modeling and Experiment of the Hot Test of Gyrotron Traveling Wave Tubes

The establishment of an automatic hot test platform is one of the important conditions to ensure the safe and stable operation for the gyrotron traveling wave tubes (gyro-TWTs). In order to verify the reliability of the controlling strategies used in the long period hot test of a high peak/average power gyro-TWT, the control process of the cathode-anode beam voltage and current is described by a mathematical model based on a proportional—integral—derivative (PID) controller. The beam voltage is controlled by the high-voltage power supply and the beam current is regulated by the high-voltage power supply and filament heating power. A mathematical model of the PID controller is developed and evaluated by the MATLAB to analyze the performance of the system. The comparison between the experimental and modeling results show that the second-order inertia model with time delay can express the control process of the beam voltage and current well. The PID controlling theory can be used to model the control process of the hot test of a gyro-TWT with digital signal, so that the damage of the immature strategy is prevented.