Method and apparatus for structuring printed circuit boards

Abstract

A method and device can be used to pattern both regions of a printed circuit board which are provided for coarse conductor structures and regions which are provided for relatively fine conductor structures of the printed circuit board. In each case, this can be done via laser processing. Both regions are firstly coated with a continuous metallization layer and covered with an etch resistor. The coarse conductor structures are predefined with a laser beam with a relatively long wavelength by exposing the metal surfaces which are not required. In addition, the fine conductor structures are also pre-shaped by processing the etch resist with a laser beam with a relatively short wavelength. Then, in a common etching process, all the exposed surface regions of the metal layer are etched away so that only the coarse and fine conductor track structures which are covered by the remaining etch resist are left. As a result of the removal of the rest of the etch resist, the surfaces of the conductor tracks which are produced are then exposed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.