Abstract: An aspect of the present invention includes a method for patterning a workpiece covered at least partly with a layer sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, comprising the actions of, providing a data representation of at least one image to be imaged onto a plurality of locations of said workpiece, fracturing said data representation into a plurality of field stripes, repeating the actions of rasterizing a first field stripe of said data representation, modulating a modulator according to said rasterized field stripe, imaging said first field stripe onto a plurality of locations of said workpiece, rasterizing a second field stripe of said data representation while imaging said first field stripe onto said plurality of locations of said workpiece, terminating the repetition when a predetermined amount of said image is imaged onto said plurality of locations of said workpiece. Other aspects of the present invention are reflected in the detailed description, figures and claims.

Abstract: The invention relates to microlithography, in particular to the writing of photomasks for computer displays, microelectronic devices, and precision photoetching. It is also applicable to wafers, optical devices and a variety of electronic interconnection structures such as multichip modules. Other applications are possible, such as printing and graphics, as well as laser projection displays. In the present invention the data conversion is divided in two steps: first cutting the geometries in scan lines and simplifying them, and then finishing the conversion of the scan lines at the point of demand, i.e. in a beam processor in the driving electronics for each beam. The idea is to make as much as possible of the conversion at the latest possible point, i.e. at the beams. What is needed at an earlier stage is to separate the data for different beams and distribute them, and to simplify the data enough to make sure that the beam processors can always handle the data flow.