Patent ID: 8111380

Claim:
An apparatus to print a target pattern on a semiconductor wafer during a maskless-lithography process, comprising: a dynamic source configured to provide an illumination pattern, wherein the dynamic source is electronically configurable; and a first spatial-light modulator configured to modify the illumination pattern to produce an image pattern, wherein the modification of the illumination pattern is in accordance with a write pattern that specifies settings of elements in the first spatial-light modulator for at least an exposure of at least a portion of the semiconductor wafer during the maskless-lithography process; wherein the write pattern is compressed using a run-length encoding technique; and wherein, for at least one linear array of pixels in the write pattern, the run-length encoding technique provides at least one sequence including: a first number of consecutive first type of pixels in the write pattern; a first grayscale value for a first transition pixel; a second number of consecutive second type of pixels in the write pattern; a second grayscale value for a second transition pixel; and a third number of consecutive first type of pixels in the write pattern.