US 2018/0006668 A1Published application

Method and device for generating a decoded and synchronized output

AssigneeMapper Lithography IP B.V.

InventorMarco Jan-Jaco WIELAND

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

The invention relates to a invention relates to a method and decoding device for receiving an input bit-stream comprising a sequence of n-bit pattern symbols as well as a unique n-bit comma symbol for synchronization, and for generating therefrom a synchronized output comprising a sequence of m-bit pattern words, with m<n. The comma symbol allows detection of bit-skip in the input bit-stream, so that the output to be synchronized to compensate for the bit-skip. The decoding device and method of decoding are particularly simple and may be applied in devices, e.g. in a beam modulator array comprising a plurality of decoding devices, and/or in a lithography system comprising such a beam modulator array, in which space and computational resources are scarce while still providing a synchronization capability.

Claims25

Dependent claims

Method of generating a decoded and synchronized output of m-bit pattern words from an input bit-stream comprising frames with n-bit pattern symbols as well as an n-bit comma symbol and in which bit-skip may have occurred, with m<n, said method comprising repeating the steps of:

a) receiving a sequence of q bits from the input bit-stream, with q ≧1;
b) detecting whether a predetermined n-bit comma symbol is present in a concatenation of all but the last bit of the received sequence of q bits appended to a sequence of n bits received from the input bit-stream immediately prior thereto;
c) determining a comma position, wherein if in step b) a comma symbol is detected, said comma position is determined to be indicative of a position at which the comma symbol was detected in said concatenation, and wherein otherwise said comma position is determined as a comma position that was most recently determined in step c);
d) if in step b) no comma symbol was detected:
selecting a predetermined number of bits of the concatenation starting from the position indicated by the comma position, said predetermined number being greater than m, and decoding said selected predetermined number of bits to generate at least one decoded m-bit pattern word based only on said selected bits, and
outputting said at least one decoded m-bit pattern word.

3 more elements

Decoding device configured to generate a decoded and synchronized output of m-bit pattern words from an input bit-stream comprising frames with n-bit pattern words as well as an n-bit comma symbol and in which bit-skip may have occurred, with m<n, said decoding device comprising:

a memory for storing a sequence of q bits received from the input bit-stream, with q 1;
comma detection circuitry adapted for generating a comma detect signal only if a comma symbol is detected in a concatenation of all but the last bit of the received sequence of q bits appended to a sequence of n bits received from the input bit-stream immediately prior thereto, and for generating a comma position signal such that said comma position signal does not change its value if no comma symbol is detected and otherwise is set to a value indicating a position in said concatenation at which said comma symbol is detected;
decoding circuitry connected to said comma detection circuitry and adapted for selecting a predetermined number of bits of the concatenation starting from the position indicated by the comma position signal, and for generating at least one decoded m-bit pattern-word based only on said selected bits;
output circuitry connected to said decoding circuitry and adapted for outputting said at least one decoded m-bit pattern word when no comma detect signal is generated.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.