Abstract: The invention relates to a lithography system for patterning a target, said system comprising a feedback control system comprising an actuator for displacing the target, a measurement system for measuring a position of said target, and a control unit adapted for controlling the actuator based on the position measured by the measurement system, said feedback control system having a first latency being a maximum latency between measuring and controlling the actuator based on said measuring, a storage system for storing the measured positions, comprising a receive buffer and a storage unit with a second latency being an average latency between receiving measured positions in the receive buffer and storing said measured positions in the storage unit, wherein the first latency is at least an order of magnitude smaller than the second latency, the feedback control system comprising a unidirectional connection for transmitting said measured positions to the storage system.

Abstract: A maskless lithography system for transferring a pattern onto the surface of a target. At least one beam generator generates a plurality of beamlets. A plurality of modulators modulate the magnitude of a beamlet, and a control unit controls each of the modulators. The control unit generates and delivers pattern data to the modulators for controlling the magnitude of each individual beamlet. The control unit includes at least one data storage for storing the pattern data, at least one readout unit for reading out the data from the data storage, at least one data converter for converting the data that is read out from the data storage into at least one modulated light beam, and at least one optical transmitter for transmitting the at least one modulated light beam to the modulation modulators.