Abstract: In the process of constructing microelectronic circuits on a semiconductor chip, electron-beam lithography is utilized to fabricate high resolution resist patterns. The resolution however, is limited by proximity effects which are due to scattering of the electron-beam as it passes through the resist. In the disclosed method, those proximity effects are compensated for by making the energy that is absorbed by the resist from the electrons, substantially greater at the perimeter of each shape in the pattern than at the interior of those shapes.