Highly conducting polymers have attracted much interest because of their potential applications in sensors and electronic devices. By the use of templates like porous membranes during polymerization conducting molecular wires can be formed with highly anisotropic properties which can be used as interconnecting layers in a three-dimensional (3D)-chip stacking. We focussed on two electrochemical polymerization (ECP) techniques to produce molecular wires based on polypyrrole (PPy) embedded in isolating porous polycarbonate membranes as self-supporting layers. The growth of the polymer through the membrane pores was investigated in order to achieve a good conductivity through the pores, but with a small cross-talk between them. A new polymerization technique based on a structured cathode has been developed in order to control the polymerization locally. By that technique micro-patterned membranes with separated conducting polymer wires could be produced. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.