Patent ID: 8884255

Claim:
A maskless lithography system configured for exposing a field on a target in a first scan and a second scan, based on pattern data, the system comprising: an electron optical column for generating charged particle beamlets for exposing the target, the electron optical column including a beamlet blanker array including a plurality of beamlet blanker elements for modulating the beamlets; and a data path comprising: a first beam selector; a plurality of second beam selectors, and a plurality of transmission channels for transmitting the pattern data to the beamlet blanker elements; wherein the beamlets are arranged into beamlet groups for exposing stripes within the field on the target, and beamlet groups are arranged into sets, each set consisting of groups arranged for exposing adjacent stripes, and wherein the beamlet blanker elements of each set are communicatively coupled with a corresponding second beam selector; wherein the data path is configured for selecting a first selection of beamlet groups for exposing selected stripes in a first portion of the field during the first scan, and configured for selecting a second selection of beamlet groups for exposing further selected stripes in a second portion of the field during the second scan, wherein the first and second portions of the field are different; wherein the first beam selector is configured for dispatching pattern data subsets to corresponding second beam selectors via the transmission channels; wherein each of the second beam selectors is configured for controlling the beamlet blanker elements of selected beamlet groups in a corresponding set during each of the respective first and second scans, and wherein each of the first and second selections of beamlet groups comprises less selected beamlet groups from each set than the total number N>0 of beamlet groups in each set.