A new plasma source configuration, coaxial source, has been developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suitable for ion and electron beam lithography applications. The: axial ion energy spread and electron temperature of the multicusp ion source have been reduced considerably from 2 and 0.3 eV to a record low of 0.6 eV by employing a coaxial source arrangement. Results of ion projection lithographic exposure at the Fraunhofer Institute demonstrate that feature size less than 65 nm can be achieved by using a filter-equipped multicusp ion source. Langmuir probe measurements also show that very low energy spread electron beams can be obtained with the multicusp plasma generator.