Carbon stripping foils were prepared by AC or DC arc discharge method. Sandwich carbon foils were prepared by alternative AC-DC discharge. The carbon stripping foils prepared by different methods have different lifetime. It has been shown that different prepared methods of carbon stripping foils have different structure. The measurement and analysis of SEM/TEM images of carbon stripping foils prepared with different methods and the relationship between microstructure and lifetime of carbon foils were described in this paper.