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54 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2024 and avoided getting too theoretical with his account of the development of RoBAT's exten- sive product portfolio. Describing the origins of the company, he explained that his early experience was with the design and manufacture of specialty test fixtures, particularly for large backplane assem- blies. But by the late '90s, frequent design revi- sions resulting from the rapid evolution of mobile phone infrastructure were making it uneconomical to produce dedicated fixtures for this type of assembly, creating an opportu- nity for an alternative approach. Flying probe testing had its mechanical limitations when using its typically long probes to consistently and reliably contact features like vertical pins and certain female connectors. In 2003, Nockton and his colleagues devised a solution which he described as a cross between a test fixture and a flying probe, with an X-Y-Z-axis gantry system picking up indi- vidual "tools" from a magazine, which were effectively "mini test fixtures." He showed me Article by Pete Starkey I-CONNECT007 It was the beginning of July, on an Eng- lish summer's day—overcast and raining—as I drove up to Cheshire the pretty way, across the Derbyshire dales, to avoid the traffic prob- lems on the M6 motorway. It was well worth the journey when I arrived at the premises of RoBAT Ltd., in Macclesfield, to meet with Managing Director Bruce Nockton. RoBAT has a long-established name in high-speed signal integrity testing of complex assemblies and, more recently, has offered a fully automatic impedance tester for bare boards. I was curious to learn more, and Nockton was happy to enlighten me. I confessed at the start that I was basically a chemist who knew a bit about making PCBs but not a lot about the electronics of sig- nal transmission, although I was aware of the increasingly critical importance of establish- ing the right combination of material proper- ties and the precision of fabrication to achieve a product with specific electrical character- istics. Nockton kindly stayed with the basics A Visit to RoBAT