In accordance with the present invention, a method for employing and removing inorganic anti-reflection coatings, includes the steps of providing a first dielectric layer on a semiconductor device structure to be processed, the first dielectric layer being selectively removable relative to the semiconductor device structure, and forming an inorganic dielectric anti-reflection coating (DARC) on the first dielectric layer, the DARC being selectively removable relative to the first dielectric layer. A resist layer is patterned on the DARC. The resist is selectively removable relative to the DARC. The semiconductor device structure is etched, and the resist layer, the DARC and the first dielectric layer are selectively removed.