Laser microlithography has been one of the most rapidly developing lit
hographic methods in the last years. The possibility of using thin met
al carbide layers deposited on polyimide coated substrates has been in
vestigated. The deposition conditions of thin polyimide(less than or e
qual to 1 mu m) and carbide (40 nm) films for lithographic application
s were determined. UV laser ablation of the metal carbide layers was p
erformed at different wavelengths. Ablation threshold fluences are aro
und 20-90 mJ/cm(2). Clean ablation with high edge definition by one si
ngle laser pulse is achieved at about 40-200 mJ/cm(2) leaving a smooth
polyimide surface. At 248 nm ablation using two different pulse durat
ions (32, 81 ns) was performed, but no significant differences could b
e found. Microstructures can be produced by ablation using mask imagin
g techniques. These results demonstrate the applicability of polyimide
-metal carbide layer combinations as lithographic systems for a full d
ry process: laser-ablation-structuring of the carbide image layer and
subsequent image transfer by reactive ion etching of the polyimide.