The present invention relates to preparation of patterned reticles to be used as masks in the production of semiconductor and other devices. An illumination beam path of the illumination device is defined by a light source, a field diaphragm, illumination optics with at least one illumination lens, and at least one deflection element. The roughened bottom is further covered with a photoabsorbent resin, pigment or adhesive for absorbing the stray laser beams at a bottom. A termination resistance control circuit measures a data eye size of the equalized serial data output based on the first and second recovered data outputs over the range of termination resistance values and sets the termination resistance to one of the termination resistance values based on the measured data eye sizes.