A method for the direct writing of metal features from a metal film supported on an optically transparent substrate using a single pulse from a high-energy excimer laser (193 nm) is presented. The technique eliminates the need for gas-phase precursors in many cases and is an inherently clean process. Results of copper depositions onto silicon substrates are shown to exemplify the technique and a mechanism for the process is proposed.

The laser-induced forward transfer technique in which material is ablatively transferred from a thin film to a target substrate by a pulsed excimer laser has been extended to 532 nm using a frequency-doubled YAG laser. Cu and Ag have been deposited on fused silica substrates using microscope objectives for focusing, resulting in reductions in feature size over that obtainable with the multimode excimer laser. The photothermal deposition process has been modeled using the one-dimensional thermal diffusion equation, including a moving solid-melt boundary, with good agreement between theoretical and experimental results.