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Optical lithography is still the workhorse for the volume production of integrated circuits. Photo-resists play a key role in the introduction of the next optical lithography generation. Typically, each wavelength (I-line, 248 nm, 193 nm, etc.) requires a new resist chemistry. The acceleration in the ITRS-roadmap makes that time for resist development limited and ever decreasing. In this paper, the challenges and trends in photo-resist development are reviewed. A clear trend towards thinner resists has been observed recently and is expected to continue. The use of hard-masks and bi-layer resists is getting more and more attention. It is expected that 193 nm resists are getting ready to be inserted at the 90 nm technology node, while 157 nm resist platforms are being developed for the 65 nm node. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]