Expanding method and expanding device

An expanding method for expanding an adhesive sheet with respect to a plate-like article stuck to said adhesive sheet, mounted to a ring-shaped frame through said adhesive sheet, and diced into individual chips by a dicing device, after the dicing to increase spacings between said individual chips, comprising:

• a conveying step of conveying said plate-like article together with a chuck stage of said dicing device to a different area in said dicing device without being detached from said chuck stage after the dicing of said plate-like article;
• an expanding step of expanding said adhesive sheet so as to produce spacings between individual chips with said plate-like article being mounted to said frame in a wafer spreader of an expansion device;
• and
• an expansion maintaining step of maintaining an expanded state of said adhesive sheet with the spacings between individual chips unchanged and with said plate-like article remaining mounted to said frame after said expanding step by nipping or pinching a loose part of the expanded adhesive sheet formed near an outer periphery of the adhesive sheet by the expansion of the adhesive sheet to form a looped annular protrusion surrounding the chips, and
• wherein a heat-shrinkable sheet is used as said adhesive sheet,
• said expanding step includes a step of applying tension to said adhesive sheet, and
• said expansion maintaining step includes a step of heating and shrinking said loose part of the expanded adhesive sheet near the outer periphery of the adhesive sheet to eliminate said loose part.

An expanding method for expanding an adhesive sheet with respect to a plate-like article stuck to said adhesive sheet, mounted to a ring-shaped frame through said adhesive sheet, and diced into individual chips by a dicing device, after the dicing to increase spacings between said individual chips, comprising:

• a conveying step of conveying said plate-like article together with a chuck stage of said dicing device to a different area in said dicing device without being detached from said chuck stage after the dicing of said plate-like article;
• an expanding step of expanding said adhesive sheet so as to produce spacings between individual chips with said plate-like article being mounted to said frame in a wafer spreader of an expansion device;
• and
• an expansion maintaining step of maintaining an expanded state of said adhesive sheet with the spacings between individual chips unchanged and with said plate-like article remaining mounted to said frame after said expanding step by nipping or pinching a loose part of the expanded adhesive sheet formed near an outer periphery of the adhesive sheet by the expansion of the adhesive sheet to form a looped annular protrusion surrounding the chips,
• wherein said expanding step includes a step of relatively vertically separating said plate-like article and said frame, and applying a lateral force to said adhesive sheet, and
• said expansion maintaining step includes a step of sticking a different ring-shaped frame to said expanded adhesive sheet, and cutting said adhesive sheet near an outer periphery of said different frame outwardly of a position at which the adhesive sheet is held.