An innovative technology with a dry film resist (Riston) for use in mi
crosystem engineering applications is presented. In view of the simpli
city of forming a controllable resist thickness (20 - 100 mu m/level),
inherent planarization for multilevel processes in 3D microsystems an
d high, stable over-wafer thickness uniformity, we have investigated t
he use of dry film resists to realise high aspect ratio microstructure
s > 10:1 using both reactive ion etching (RIE) and excimer laser ablat
ion.