The resist debris (RD) formation dependence on beam stepping to beam size ratio in electron beam lithography (EBL) is theoretically and experimentally investigated. The theoretically simulated results show a distinct variation in RD formation as the beam stepping to beam size ratio is varied from 0.5 to 2.0. The corresponding experimental results show a very close resemblance with the simulated results. It is further demonstrated that this undesirable phenomenon of RD formation gives another dimension to look at the problem of proximity exposure effect in EBL and can also be well utilized in certain cases.