Patent ID: 7166232

Claim:
Method for producing a solid body including a microstructure, wherein the surface of a substrate is provided with a masking layer which is impermeable to a substance to be applied, and the substance is subsequently incorporated into substrate regions not covered by the masking layer, the method comprising the steps of: heat treating a substrate region covered by the masking layer to diffuse the incorporated substance in the substrate region covered by the masking layer, such that a concentration gradient of the substance is created, proceeding from the edge of the masking layer inward with increasing distance from the edge, in the substrate region covered by the masking layer; removing the masking layer to expose the substrate region below it; converting a layer of the substrate near the surface in the exposed substrate region by a chemical conversion reaction into a coating with a layer thickness profile corresponding to the concentration gradient of the substance contained in this near-surface layer; treating a subsection of the coating, the surface of which is smaller than the substrate surface covered by the original masking layer, and in which the thickness of the coating is reduced relative to the remaining subsections of the coating, in which treatment the substrate region covered by this subsection is exposed to provide an exposed subsection, and/or a material is incorporated into this substrate region through the coating, where during the removal of the masking layer, the substrate regions laterally adjacent to the masking layer are covered by an etching mask, and the masking layer is then contacted with an etching agent, and where a metallic layer is applied over the exposed subsection, and that the adhesive properties of the substrate material and of the coating are matched to the material of the surface layer such that the metallic layer adheres only to the exposed subsection of the substrate region.