An adhesive bonding method that includes bonding a handling wafer to a front side surface of a device wafer with an adhesive comprising N-substituted maleimide copolymers. The device wafer may then be thinned from the backside surface of the device wafer while the device wafer is adhesively engaged to the handling wafer. The adhesive can then be removed by laser debonding, wherein the device wafer is separated from the handling wafer.