Lithography

"lithographic manufacturing techniques, where copper wiring has to be masked with insulating material before lasers etch away."

Umm... I think you need to brush up on your semiconductor manufacturing techniques. Etching is done with plasma or wet chemical processes - not lasers. Copper isn't etched anyway. The normal method is called the (dual) damascene process.

Much as I hate referencing wikipedia - this is a descent introduction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper-based_chips#Patterning