Patent ID: 7251019

Claim:
A lithographic apparatus, comprising: an illumination system that supplies a continuous beam of radiation; an array of individually controllable elements that modulate the radiation beam and configured to produce a first set of sub-beams from the radiation beam, the first set of sub-beams having oblong or elliptical cross-sectional shapes; a substrate mover that continuously moves a substrate in a first direction relative to the radiation beam; and a projection system that is configured to transform the first set of sub-beams into a second set of sub-beams having a circular cross-section shape and to project the second set of sub-beams onto a target portion of the substrate, the projection system comprising, a microlens array, each microlens in the microlens array having an oblong or elliptical shape, wherein each microlens receives a respective portion of the first set of sub-beams of radiation to form respective portions of the second set of sub-beams of radiation.