Microvia for interconnect application was drilled using multishot laser pulses of nanosecond duration. It is observed that time delay between successive pulses have an effect on the shape of the drilled microvias. There is a thresholdlike time delay at which microvia suffers an abrupt deformation which creates voids and complication in the subsequent metallization process. Thermal coupling between successive pulses could be used to explain this phenomenon. To avoid deformation, a longer time delay between subsequent pulses is preferred. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.