Photoresist is the indispensable and key material used for fabricating large-scale and super-large-scale integrated circuits in microelectronic industry. Due to its strategic role in the construction of national economy and national defense, photoresist has aroused great attention of researchers. Since the birth of the first integrated circuit board in 1959, photoresist has gradually evolved from the resists used for traditional ultraviolet (UV) photolithography, including early polyvinyl cinnamate, cyclized rubber/azide system, near-UV (436-nm G-line and 365-nm I-line) novolac/diazonaphthoquinone photoresists, deep-UV (DUV, 248-nm and 193-nm) and vacuum-UV (157-nm) photoresists, to the resists used for the so-called next generation lithography (NGL), such as extreme-UV lithography (EUVL), electron-beam lithography (EBL), nanoimprint lithography (NIL), block copolymer lithography (BCL), and scanning probe lithography (SPL). In this review, the above evolution of photoresist and its research progress are summarized based on a large amount of literature. Thereinto, DUV chemically amplified photoresists are focused, including matrix resins, photoacid generators, and additives (for example, dissolution inhibitors and basic compounds). In addition, the recent research achievements of the resists for EUVL, EBL, NIL, BCL, and SPL are also highlighted. Finally, the prospect and research directions of photoresist in the future are briefly discussed.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Polyvinyl cinnamate and cyclized rubber negative-tone photoresists
3 G-line and I-line photoresists
3.1 Novolac/diazonaphthoquinone (DNQ) resists
3.2 Other systems
4 Deep-ultraviolet (DUV) photoresists
4.1 248-nm photoresists
4.2 193-nm photoresists
5 Vacuum-ultraviolet (157-nm) photoresists
6 Resists for next generation lithography (NGL)
6.1 Extreme-ultraviolet lithography (EUVL)
6.2 Electron-beam lithography (EBL)
6.3 Nanoimprint lithography (NIL)
6.4 Block copolymer lithography (BCL)
6.5 Scanning probe lithography (SPL)
7 Conclusions and perspective