ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,389,547, issued on Aug. 12, was assigned to International Business Machines Corp. (Armonk, N.Y.).
"Hybrid mechanical drill" was invented by Sarah K. Czaplewski-Campbell (Rochester, Minn.), Eric J. Campbell (Rochester, Minn.), Jennifer I. Bennett (Rochester, Minn.) and Steven Chandler Borrillo (Rochester, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system and method for making vias in a laminated printed circuit board (PCB). A drill having both a mechanical drill and a laser drill is used to make the via. The mechanical drill is moved over a location in the PCB where a blind via is desired. The mechanical drill drills to a point where a tip of...