Patent ID: 8536485

Claim:
A method for forming a plurality of production apertures in a microfeature workpiece, the method comprising: ablating the microfeature workpiece by directing pulses of a laser beam to form a test aperture in the microfeature workpiece; determining a first thickness of the microfeature workpiece at a first location, the first location being the location of the test aperture; automatically determining a number of pulses of the laser beam and/or an elapsed time to form the test aperture; determining a second thickness of the microfeature workpiece at a second location different than the first location, the second location being the location of one of the plurality of production apertures; and automatically controlling the laser beam based on the determined number of pulses and/or the determined elapsed time to form a plurality of production apertures in the microfeature workpiece, wherein automatically controlling the laser beam comprises controlling the laser beam based on the difference between the first thickness and second thickness.