[itishappy]

Yes, electron-beam lithography is fantastic but also fantastically slow. Sorta like building a Lego model brick by brick vs layer by layer. It's still used for reticle fabrication and repair.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron-beam_lithography

Edit: Confused SEMs and STMs, but the principle described above applies to both.

[sevensor]

Where the reticle is worth patterning expensively because it gets used in so many subsequent exposures using light rather than electrons.