The collaboration combines Irresistible Materials' advanced photoresist materials platform with TOK's long-standing market leadership and world-class manufacturing to drive innovations for EUV lithography

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom and KAWASAKI CITY, Japan, Feb. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Irresistible Materials, Ltd. (IM), a leader in the development of novel photoresist materials for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. (TOK) (TSE: 4186.T), a market leader in the photoresist industry, today announced a strategic financial investment and joint development partnership focused on accelerating innovations in photoresists for EUV lithography. The investment from TOK is a recognition of IM's innovative and patented EUV resist platform, Multi-Trigger Resist (MTR™), as a strong complement to chemically amplified resist (CAR) and metal oxide resist (MOR) platforms for the enablement of low-NA and high-NA EUV lithography. MTR has demonstrated strong potential for fulfilling the performance needs of integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and foundries as well as delivering cost of ownership (CoO) savings for EUV device manufacturing. As part of the joint development partnership, IM and TOK will focus exclusively on accelerating the MTR development roadmap and advancing the commercialization of MTR to drive customer adoption across the industry.   

IM will use the financial investment from TOK to grow and expand its team primarily in Birmingham as well as enhance IM's infrastructure, including additional equipment, materials and facilities. This investment will also allow IM to collaborate more closely with its existing partners, such as ASML, imec and other key players in the advanced patterning ecosystem, and enable IM to continue driving new innovations aimed at addressing the critical challenges of EUV lithography. TOK's investment builds on the significant funding support previously received by IM from Mercia Capital, University of Birmingham, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant program, and several angel investors in the UK and US. TOK will use IM's MTR platform to help supplement its existing resist portfolio, which has already attained a market leading position. TOK will also leverage its world-class manufacturing capability and ISO-certified quality control processes to scale up MTR for high-volume manufacturing.  

"We are very excited that TOK, a pioneer and market leader in semiconductor photoresists, has chosen to invest in and co-develop our MTR platform, which is designed from the ground up specifically for EUV lithography," said Dinesh Bettadapur, Chief Executive Officer, Irresistible Materials. "One of our key strengths that we bring to this partnership is our speed of innovation, which allows us to create and optimize custom formulations to meet our customers' requirements within only a matter of weeks. TOK's manufacturing prowess and strong customer relationships are ideally suited to drive the rapid commercialization of our proprietary MTR material and to scale it up to high volume. TOK's investment and endorsement of our MTR platform reinforce our shared vision for advancing EUV lithography and we look forward to a strong collaboration with them."

"By joining forces, we will accelerate the co-development and commercialization of IM's innovative MTR platform, delivering next-generation EUV resist solutions to our customers much faster," said Katsumi Ohmori, Director, Executive Officer, Division Manager, Research and Development Division at TOK. "We decided to invest in IM based on their unique EUV resist technology, talented team, and strong IP portfolio. The industry has a pressing need for new resist solutions such as IM's MTR. Through our collaboration, we will be able to co-develop and commercialize IM's innovative MTR platform at a much faster pace and usher in a new era of photoresist technology that ultimately advances EUV lithography across the semiconductor industry."

New EUV Resist Materials Needed to Drive Industry Roadmap
Chip manufacturers continue to push the limits of EUV lithography to further reduce the size of chip features, which increases the need for next-generation EUV photoresists. IM's MTR material is a patented small-molecule resist platform, designed with molecular dimensions up to 10 times smaller than those of conventional polymer-based resists to enable superior resolution and pattern fidelity. The MTR chemistry mechanism is being developed with the goal of minimizing blurring while achieving both reduced line-edge and line-width roughness (LER/LWR) and higher sensitivity for improved yield, addressing one of the key trade-offs in advanced EUV patterning. By targeting improved resist efficiency, the MTR platform aims to support faster processing and significantly lower CoO compared with conventional resist technologies.

In parallel, IM and TOK are jointly pursuing PFAS/PFOS-free and metal-free formulations as a core development objective, supporting cleaner and more sustainable semiconductor manufacturing. The MTR platform is designed to support both low-NA and high-NA EUV, aligning with semiconductor manufacturers' long-term technology roadmaps and future scaling requirements.

Irresistible Materials at SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning 2026
Irresistible Materials will be presenting a paper, "Advances by multi-trigger resist towards high resolution EUV lithography," during the SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning Conference in San Jose, Calif. on Tuesday, February 24 at 8:40 - 9:00am PST, at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, Room 210C. For more information, visit: https://spie.org/advanced-lithography/presentation/Advances-by-multi-trigger-resist-towards-high-resolution-EUV-lithography/13983-14

TOKYO OHKA KOGYO CO., LTD. (TOK) (TSE: 4186.T), SAFE HARBOR / FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT
This press release contains forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations, estimates and projections. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the company's strategy for growth, product development, market position, expected expenditures and financial results are forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements may be identified by words like "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "intends", "projects", "indicates", "believes", and similar expressions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors, including those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in TOK's filings with the Ministry of Finance of Japan and Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., particularly its latest annual report and semiannual report, as well as others, could cause results to differ materially from those stated. These factors include, but are not limited to changes in the laws, regulations, policies and economic conditions, including inflation, deflation, interest and foreign currency exchange rates, of countries in which the company does business; competitive pressures; successful integration of structural changes, including restructuring plans, acquisitions, divestitures and alliances; cost of raw materials, research and development of new products, including regulatory approval and market acceptance.

About Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. (TOK)
Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. (TOK) is a leading company in photoresists, essential materials for semiconductor manufacturing and advancement. Since successfully developing Japan's first semiconductor photoresist in 1968, TOK has contributed to the evolution of semiconductors, including those related to generative AI, by leveraging its world-leading microprocessing and world-leading high purity technology. TOK is also committed to developing new products and technologies that create social value in areas such as power semiconductors, image sensors, and MEMS manufacturing. Under its management vision, "The e-Material Global Company™" contributing to sustainable future through chemistry, TOK continues to contribute to value creation for the future and the realization of a sustainable and prosperous society. For more information, visit https://www.tok.co.jp/eng.

About Irresistible Materials 
Irresistible Materials is a pioneering electronic materials technology company specializing in developing advanced photoresists for next-generation EUV lithography in semiconductor manufacturing. Its patented photoresist material called Multi-Trigger Resist (MTR™) offers superior imaging performance for low-NA and high-NA EUV compared to competing solutions across several key criteria, including resolution, line width roughness (LWR), line edge roughness (LER), sensitivity, absorbance, defectivity, and etch resistance. As a result, IDM and foundry customers can realize the benefits of higher manufacturing yields and significantly lower cost of ownership (CoO) for both logic and memory devices across multiple applications. Irresistible Materials is headquartered in Birmingham, UK, and has numerous issued patents and patent filings covering its MTR™ platform and related technologies. For more information, visit www.irresistiblematerials.com.

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