Systems, methods, and devices related to catalyzed metal foils are disclosed. Contemplated metal foils have a bottom surface, preferably roughened to Ra of at least 0.1 m, bearing a catalyst material. The metal foils are etchable, typically of aluminum or derivative thereof, and is less than 500 m thick. Methods and systems for forming circuits from catalyzed metal foils are also disclosed. The catalyst material bearing surface of the metal foil is applied to a substrate and laminated, in some embodiments with a thermoset resin or thermoplastic resin therebetween or an organic material first coating the catalytic material. The metal foil is removed to expose the catalyst material, and a conductor is plated to the catalyst material.

A process for fabricating a circuit board uses a catalytic dielectric core having catalytic particles, a foil top surface, and a thin foil bottom surface with a foil backing of sufficient thickness to absorb heat from a laser drilling operation to prevent the penetration of the thin foil bottom surface during laser drilling. A sequence of steps including a laser drilling step, removing the foil backing step, electroless plating step, patterned resist step, electroplating step, resist strip step, tin plate step, and copper etch step are performed, which provide dot vias of fine linewidth and resolution.