Direct imaging process for forming resist pattern on a surface and use thereof in fabricating printing plates

摘要

A process is described for the direct production of an imaged pattern of resist on a substrate surface (such as a pattern of etch-resistant organic resin material on the surface of a copper-clad dielectric in connection with a printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication process or in the process of producing printed plates), which process utilizes thermo-resists rather than photoresists, i.e., compositions which undergo thermally-induced, rather than photo-induced, chemical transformations. A film of thermo-resist composition applied to the substrate surface is scanned by a focused heat source (e.g., a thermal laser emitting in the IR region) in a predetermined pattern, without a phototool, to bring about localized thermally-induced chemical transformations of the composition which either directly produce the resist pattern or produce in the film a developable latent image of the pattern.