Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. An electron beam column comprising:(a) a thermal field emission electron source to generate an electron beam;(b) an electron beam blanker to blank the electron beam;(c) a beam shaping module to shape the electron beam;(d) electron beam optics comprising a plurality of electron beam lenses including one or more of a condenser, projection, magnification, demagnification and objective lens,wherein the optical parameters of the electron beam blanker, beam shaping module, and electron beam optics are set to achieve an acceptance semi-angle β of from about ¼to about 3 mrads, where the acceptance semi-angle β is half the angle subtended by the electron beam at the writing plane. 2. A column according to claim 1 wherein the optical parameters of the electron beam blanker, beam shaping module, and electron beam optics are set to achieve an acceptance semi-angle β of from about 1 to about 3 mrads. 3. A column according to claim 1 wherein electron beam optics are arranged in a column having a length of from about 300 to about 1200 mm. 4. A column according to claim 3 wherein electron beam optics are arranged in a column having a length of from about 400 to about 800 mm. 5. A column according to claim 1 wherein the acceptance semi-angle β is the angle defined by βfinal=(dsource/shapefinal)αsource, where dsource is the source diameter and shapefinal is the final size of the shaped beam, and αsource is the source semi-angle. 6. A column according to claim 1 wherein the electron beam column comprises a magnification of from about 15 to about 60. 7. A column according to claim 1 wherein the electron beam column comprises a demagnification of from about 32 to about 128. 8. A column according to claim 1 wherein the electron beam column comprises an aperture size of from about 3 to about 20 μm. 9. A column according to claim 1 wherein the electron beam column comprises a final beam shape of from about 1/32 to about 1 μm. 10. A column according to claim 1 wherein the electron beam column comprises a source size of from about 10 to about 100 nm. 11. A column according to claim 1 wherein the thermal field emission electron source comprises a tip having a diameter of at least about 1.2 micron. 12. A column according to claim 11 wherein the thermal field emission electron source comprises a tip having a diameter of from about 1.2 to about 2 micron. 13. A column according to claim 12 wherein the thermal field emission electron source comprises zirconiated tungsten. 14. A beam shaping module for an electron beam column, the beam shaping module comprising:(a) an upper projection lens;(b) an upper beam shaper having upper aperture, the upper beam shaper located downstream of the upper projection lens;(c) a deflector comprising a plurality of deflector plates spaced apart about an electron beam gap, at least one pair of deflector plates facing each other, the deflector plates capable of being electrostatically charged to deflect an electron beam which is focused at a crossover point within the electron beam gap;(d) a lower beam shaper having a plurality of lower apertures; and(e) a lower projection lens,whereby the beam shaping module operates as a single lens with the object and image lengths defined by the upper and lower projection lenses, respectively. 15. A beam shaping module according to claim 14 wherein the upper projection lens has a focal length set to focus the electron beam at a point along an axis at the center of a deflector plane of the deflector. 16. A beam shaping module according to claim 14 wherein the lower projection lens has a focal length selected to focus the shaped beam image into a crossover point corresponding to the entrance pupil of a downstream demagnification lens. 17. A beam shaping module according to claim 14 wherein the upper aperture of the upper beam shaper is a square. 18. A beam shaping module according to claim 17 wherein the plurality of lower apertures in the lower beam shaper comprise a square aperture which is surrounded by a plurality of right triangle apertures.