We demonstrate the fabrication of sub-10-nm high aspect ratio electron beam patterning of ZnO at the center as well as corners of the 500 mu m square main deflection field using a negative tone zinc naphthenate resist. After electron beam exposure, the resist was developed in toluene, resulting in high-resolution patterns as small as 7 urn with an aspect ratio of similar to 10 in the center as well as at the corners of the main field. The line edge roughness (3 sigma) of these lines shows roughness with fluctuations of about 2.8 nm; thus making it the smallest value of the line edge roughness measured so far for any electron beam resist. Heating the structures at 500 degrees C resulted in reduction of feature sizes to similar to 5 nm and in the formation of crystalline ZnO. Such sub-10-nm high aspect ratio patterning within the main deflection field is an important step to enable full-wafer-level nanofabrication. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.