Polymers designed for laser microstructuring

Several polymers were tested for an application of laser ablation as an alternative to photolithography. Tailored specialty polymers revealed the highest sensitivity to laser ablation. The most sensitive polymers are based on the photolabile triazene chromophore (±N=N±N3) which is unfortunately also sensitive to other processing steps, e.g. wet etching. Polymers with a cinnamylidenemalonic acid ester group, showed not only a high sensitivity but also stability to wet etching, high quality ®lmformation properties and high resolution ablation structures. This proves that it is possible to apply laser ablation as alternative technique to photolithography, if the polymers are especially designed for laser ablation. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved