ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,300,544, issued on May 13, was assigned to DISCO Corp. (Tokyo).
"Expanding method and expanding apparatus" was invented by Jinyan Zhao (Tokyo) and Takayuki Masada (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An expanding method includes a frame securing step of securing an annular frame of a workpiece unit with frame securing means, an expanding step of, after the frame securing step, pressing a portion of an expandable sheet that lies between an outer circumferential edge of the workpiece and an inner circumferential edge of the annular frame, with an expanding drum to expand the expandable sheet, and a heating step of, after the expanding ste...