In this article, we demonstrate a bottom anti-reflective coating (BARC) layer for ArF lithography. The anti-reflective layers are composed of a commercial low-dielectric constant bisbenzo(cyclobutene) (BCB)- and fluorinated poly (arylene)ether (FLARE)-based films. By adding an optimized etching hard-mask layer, reflectance of less than 1% at the resist/silicon substrate interface can be achieved. BCB and FLARE also have great potential to be used as BARC layers on highly reflective substrates for metal interconnect applications. It is easy to reduce reflectance without adding an extra BARC layer for patterning low-dielectric materials. It is convenient to use this BARC structure in ArF lithography. In this article, suitable etching characteristics and thermal stability of BCB- and FLARE-based BARC layers are also described.