A variety of different approaches were used in an effort to improve the photospeeds of single component TSI resists based on poly(4-hydroxystyrene) (phs). The variations included molecular weights, co-monomer partners, and selected substituents. The factors that were studied dramatically affected silylation rates, in one case by as much as an order of magnitude. However, when the silylation times were adjusted to compensate for the rate differences and silylation depths, only minimal differences in photospeed were observed. The apparent contrast measured by swelling upon silylation was very poor (gamma approximate to 1.5) while the contrast measured after etching was quite high, approximately ten times that of the silylation value.