The feasibility of utilizing a bottom antireflective coating (BARC) layer composed of hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) film for 157 nm lithography is studied. The vaporized liquid HMDSO is used as a coating material in a conventional electron cyclotron resonance-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process. The required optical constants of suitable HMDSO films can easily be tuned by adjusting the gas flow rate ratio of O-2 to HMDSO. The swing effect is experimentally shown to be reduced significantly on Si substrates by applying either a single layer BARC or a bilayer BARC. Additionally, the bilayer BARC is shown by simulation to be capable of providing larger thickness-controlled tolerances than a single layer BARC.