Fabrication of low distortion stencil masks is one of the key issues for io
n-beam projection lithography (IPL). Identifying the sources of distortion
and optimizing the processing techniques are essential to meet the stringen
t error budgets. Since experiments are time consuming and expensive, it is
desirable to develop accurate simulation procedures which can be used for a
nalysis and design. This paper presents results to show that finite element
analysis is a viable alternative.