AbstractAdvances in microlithographic resist materials have been a key enabler of the unabated productivity gains in the electronics industry and are continuing to help push the ultimate limits of optical lithography. The challenges posed by the introduction of new optical lithography technologies that use smaller wavelengths have been successfully met by the materials community through the design of chemically amplified resist technologies and 193 nm resist materials based on aliphatic polymers and dissolution inhibitors. With continued advances in resist materials, exposure systems and resolution enhancement and mask technologies, optical lithography will be capable of patterning ≤ 0.1 μm design rule devices in future fabs.