We have developed an enhanced wet-chemical method to prepare patterned silicon templates with controlled depths at microscale by combining photolithography with electroless metal etching. The silicon masks are obtained in the following procedures: patterned silicon wafers selectively etch through galvanic reactions and result in patterned surfaces with silicon nanoarrays in exposed areas during photolithography; the as-etched silicon wafers are corroded in a mixture etching solution to remove silicon nanoarrays, leading to patterned silicon templates.