Direct current electrical tests have been used to measure the performance of electron beam resists and an exposure system. Resist characterization is done by using electrical tests to measure the linewidth defined as a function of an incremental dose. The quality of different resists can be compared by means of δ, the slope of the normalized linewidth versus the logarithm of the incident dose curve. Data have been measured for three negative resists (PCMS 30, PCMS 200, and OEBR 100) and PMMA for two development conditions. Resistors fabricated from 60 nm chromium films, 300 nm polysilicon films, or 60 nm titanium films gave results within ±40 nm of one another for 500 nm lines. Without proximity effect correction, linewidth difference from design value is more than ±300 nm and the 0.5Pμm lines were undefined for PMMA and the given development conditions, and 0.5Pand 1.0Pμm lines were undefined for PCMS 30 and the given exposure conditions. With proximity effect correction, all line sizes are within 100 nm of design value with the exception of 0.5Pμm in PCMS 30. The beam diameter varies from an undeflected value of 350 nm to a maximum of 650 by 480 nm, without dynamic corrections, as calculated from measurements of 500 nm lines placed throughout the 5 mm field of view. Two‐level alignment measured electrically in the center and four corners of the 5 mm field is within 100 nm, with standard deviations typically less than 60 nm at each location for each axis. Butting of exposure subfields, measured electrically, is within 80 nm; the one sigma standard deviation of this measurement is 42 and 82 nm for thexandyaxes, respectively, but is less than 15 nm at a higher exposure frequency.