Methods of reducing the intrusions or migrations of photolithography materials by introducing a sol-gel layer onto a porous thin film prior to applying the photolithography/photoresist material layer. Curing the sol-gel layer results in the sol-gel layer merging or unifying with the underlying porous thin film layer so that the combined sol-gel/thin layer exhibits substantially the same properties as the untreated porous thin film layer before the sol-gel was applied. As a result, a greater etching accuracy is achieved.