The present disclosure relates to a method for at least one of forming a part or modifying a part, and a
system therefor. The method involves initially providing a planar structure having a first material layer disposed on a second material layer. A lithographic operation including greyscale printing is performed to produce a
resist material layer on the first material layer, with the
resist material layer having a predetermined three-dimensional pattern extending along X, Y and Z axes, with features helping to define the three-dimensional pattern having differing dimensions along the Z axis, and which acts as a
mask. An etch process is then performed, using the
mask provided by the
resist material layer, to etch the first material layer to impart the pattern of the
mask as an etched pattern into the first material layer in accordance with a predetermined selectivity
etching ratio, such that the etched pattern in the first material layer includes features formed with greater dimensions than corresponding features in the mask of the resist material layer.