Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method for exposing a target according to pattern data in a maskless lithography machine generating a plurality of exposure beamlets for exposing the target, the method comprising:providing input pattern data in a vector format;rendering and quantizing the input pattern data to generate intermediate pattern data in the form of a spatially mapped array of pixel values;re-sampling and re-quantizing the intermediate pattern data to generate output pattern data;supplying the output pattern data to the lithography machine; andmodulating the beamlets generated by the lithography machine on the basis of the output pattern data. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the output pattern data comprises bi-level bitmap data. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the output pattern data consists of B/W bitmap data. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the intermediate pattern data comprises multi-level bitmap data. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the intermediate pattern data representing a certain portion of a pattern comprises a greater amount of data than the output pattern data representing the same portion of the pattern. 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising preprocessing vector pattern data to generate the input pattern data. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the preprocessing comprises a proximity effect correction. 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the preprocessing comprises a resist heating correction. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the vector pattern data comprises defining an array of pixel cells, and assigning values to the pixel cells based on relative coverage of the pixel cells by features defined by the input pattern data. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the quantizing comprises dithering by application of error diffusion on the rendered input pattern data. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the error diffusion comprises distributing quantization error in a pixel of the rendered input pattern data to one or more adjacent pixels of the intermediate pattern data. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the input pattern data further comprises dose map data, and the intermediate pattern data is formed on the basis of the vector format input pattern data and the dose map data. 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-sampling comprises defining an output grid which defines an array of output pixel cells, and assigning a value to each output pixel cell based on intermediate pattern data values falling within the output pixel cell and fractions of the output pixel cell occupied by those intermediate values. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein values in the output pixel cells are determined by calculating an average intermediate pattern data value falling within the output pixel cells. 15. The method of claims 1, wherein the re-sampling comprises transforming a pixel size of the intermediate pattern data. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein a pixel size of the intermediate pattern is larger than a pixel size of the output pattern data. 17. The method of claim 13, further comprising a pattern shift performed on the intermediate pattern data, the pattern shift comprising a shift in the output grid. 18. The method of claim 1, further comprising a pattern shift performed on the intermediate pattern data for correcting beamlet misalignment. 19. The method of claim 1, further comprising a pattern shift performed on the intermediate pattern data, the pattern shift comprising a shift of the pattern data in both a mechanical scan direction of the lithography machine and a direction perpendicular to the mechanical scan direction. 20. The method of claim 1, further comprising a pattern shift performed on the intermediate pattern data, the pattern shift comprising a shift of pattern data for an entire stripe of the pattern data. 21. The method of claim 1, further comprising a pattern scaling adjustment performed on the intermediate pattern data, the pattern scaling comprising scaling the output grid. 22. The method of claim 1, further comprising a pattern scaling adjustment performed on the intermediate pattern data for correcting for variations in beamlet scan deflection. 23. The method of 1, further comprising a pattern scaling adjustment performed on the intermediate pattern data, the pattern scaling comprising a scaling of pattern data for an entire stripe of the pattern data. 24. The method of claim 1, further comprising a dose correction performed on the intermediate pattern data. 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the dose correction is performed per beamlet. 26. The method of claim 24, wherein the dose correction is determined based on a dose factor per beamlet and a scaling factor for a stripe of the pattern data. 27. The method of claim 1, further comprising a correction performed on the intermediate pattern data for compensating for variation in the position of one or more of the beamlets. 28. The method of claim 27, wherein the wafer is moved in a mechanical scan direction during exposure of the wafer, and wherein the correction comprises an adjustment of the input pattern data that results a shift of the intermediate pattern data having a component in both the mechanical scan direction and a direction substantially perpendicular to the mechanical scan direction. 29. The method of claim 24, further comprising a correction performed on the intermediate pattern data for compensating for variation in the transmission time of the bi-level output pattern data to the lithography machine. 30. The method of claim 13, further comprising a field distortion adjustment performed on the intermediate pattern data, the distortion adjustment comprising distorting the output grid. 31. The method of claim 30, wherein the distortion is for improving overlay performance. 32. The method of claim 31, wherein the distortion is for improving matching with a different lithography tool. 33. The method of claim 30, wherein the distortion comprises at least one of a field size adjustment, a field position adjustment, a rotation of the field, an asymmetrical field size adjustment, and/or an asymmetrical rotation. 34. The method of claim 33, wherein the distortion additionally comprises higher order distortions. 35. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-quantizing comprises re-dithering by application of error diffusion on the re-sampled intermediate pattern data. 36. The method of claim 1, wherein the quantizing comprises a dithering process and the re-quantizing comprises a re-dithering process, and wherein the dithering and re-dithering are performed in opposite directions. 37. The method of claim 36, wherein the input pattern data is dithered twice to generate two sets of intermediate pattern data, each set being dithered in opposite directions. 38. The method of claim 37, wherein the two sets of intermediate pattern data are used for exposing alternating exposure lanes of the target, each set of intermediate pattern data being re-dithered in the opposite direction to the dithering before use. 39. The method of claim 36, wherein the target is moved so that each exposure lane of the target is exposed in a same direction. 40. The method of claim 35, wherein the error diffusion comprises distributing quantization error in a pixel of the re-sampled pattern data to one or more adjacent pixels of the output pattern data. 41. The method of claim 40, wherein application of error diffusion includes:defining an array of pixels;dividing the array of pixels into portions, each portion being assigned to be exposed by a different beamlet;determining error diffusion parameter values for each portion; andassigning a value to the pixels within each portion using error diffusion parameter values. 42. The method of claim 41, wherein the error diffusion parameter values comprise a threshold value and a weight value for the higher level of a bi-level output pattern data value. 43. The method of claim 42, wherein the error diffusion parameter values further comprise a weight value for the lower level of the bi-level value. 44. The method of any of claim 42, wherein the error diffusion parameter value is a threshold value, and wherein assigning a bi-level value to the pixel cells within a portion is based on comparison with the threshold value determined for the portion. 45. The method of claim 39, wherein the application of error diffusion is restricted by disallowing diffusion towards one or more pixels with a multi-level value equal to or below a further threshold value. 46. The method of claim 39, wherein the application of error diffusion is restricted by disallowing diffusion to one or more pixels that are located outside the features described in the input pattern data. 47. The method of claim 39, wherein the application of error diffusion is restricted by disallowing diffusion towards one or more pixels that have a value that differ more than a certain amount from the pixel being processed. 48. The method of claim 39, wherein each pixel has a label and wherein the application of error diffusion is restricted by disallowing diffusion towards one or more pixels that have a different label than the pixel being processed. 49. The method of claim 48, wherein the label consists of a code stored with the intermediate pattern data. 50. The method of claim 49, wherein the label is defined during preprocessing, and wherein all pixels that are covered by a feature in the vector format are assigned a first label value and all other pixels are assigned a second level value. 51. A method of operating a lithography machine wherein image data is supplied in vector format to the machine in a first step, the vector format is rendered and quantized to a bitmap data format in the form of a spatially mapped array of pixel values in a second step, said bitmap data is re-sampled in a third step for performing real-time corrections on said data, the re-sampled data is re-quantized in a fourth step, and subsequently supplied as an output bitmap to imaging hardware of the machine in a fifth step. 52. The method of claim 51, wherein the amount of data utilized for performing the first quantization step is larger than the amount of data resulting from performing said re-sampling. 53. The method of claim 51, wherein said re-sampling comprises one or more of a pattern shift, pattern scaling, or field distortion correction. 54. The method of claims 51, wherein said re-quantizing comprises performing a dose correction. 55. The method of claim 51, wherein a dithering process is performed in conjunction with the quantizing step, including a dose correction performed by adapting a dithering threshold value. 56. The method of claim 51, further comprising controlling exposure dose by modifying a pixel size of the output bitmap by transforming a pixel size of the intermediate pattern data in conjunction with said re-sampling. 57. A data path for converting input pattern data in a vector format to output pattern data in the form of a spatially mapped array of pixel values, the data path comprising:a first processing unit for rendering and quantizing the input pattern data to generate intermediate pattern data in the form of a spatially mapped array of pixel values;a first storage unit for storing the intermediate pattern data; anda second processing unit for re-sampling and re-quantizing the intermediate pattern data to generate output pattern data. 58. The data path of claim 57, wherein the first processing unit comprises software and/or hardware for dithering the rendered input pattern data. 59. The data path of claim 57, wherein the second processing unit comprises software and/or hardware for re-dithering the re-sampled pattern data. 60. The data path of claims 57, wherein the capacity of the first storage unit is sufficient to store the intermediate pattern data for an entire field of the pattern data. 61. The data path of claims 57, further comprising a second storage unit for storing the output pattern data. 62. A system for exposing a target according to pattern data, comprising:a maskless lithography machine generating a plurality of exposure beamlets for exposing the target and modulating the beamlets on the basis of output pattern data;a data path according to claim 57 for receiving input pattern data and generating the output pattern data; anda pattern streaming system for supplying the output pattern data to the lithography machine.