Scissionable polymers are polymers that will depolymerize under different stimuli including acid, base, and free radicals. These polymers have been investigated in the development of photoresists and other degradable materials. This work focuses on the poly(phthalaldehyde), PPA, a family of scissionable polymers. The PPA backbone consists of acetal linkages that are very sensitive to acids. Upon exposure to acids, the polymer chain depolymerizes to its corresponding monomers. This depolymerization behavior makes PPAs excellent candidates as photoresist materials. Several new architectures are being explored. For example, PPAs with tethered photoacid generators (PAG)s, which release acid upon irradiation, depolymerize upon exposure followed by a post-exposure bake step. The depolymerized monomers in exposed areas could be easily removed using appropriate organic solvents while the unexposed areas remain unchanged. Therefore, both unsubstituted and substituted PPAs may equally serve as a positive tone photoresist.This study focuses on the development of low exposure dose, sensitive PPA photoresists, which do not suffer from materials stochastic issues related to non-uniformities at nanoscale present in multi-component systems for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). In order to improve the lithographic performance of the PPA photoresists, the structure of the polymer backbone as well as PAGs are being investigated and tailored for EUVL. Aryl sulfonates, imidosulfonates, and iminosulfonates were prepared as non-ionic PAGs for PPA photoresists. The steric and electronic nature of these sulfonate PAGs can be easily tuned to optimize acid generation efficiency and their compatibility with a polymer photoresist matrix. All synthesis, characterization, and lithographic evaluation will be presented.