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.