Embodiments described herein provide a method of large area lithography. One embodiment of the method includes projecting at least one incident beam to a mask in a propagation direction of the at least one incident beam. The mask having at least one period of a dispersive element that diffracts the incident beam into order mode beams having one or more diffraction orders with a highest order N greater than 1. The one or more diffraction orders provide an intensity pattern in a medium between the mask and a substrate having a photoresist layer disposed thereon. The intensity pattern includes a plurality of intensity peaks defined by sub-periodic patterns of the at least one period. The intensity peaks write a plurality of portions in the photoresist layer such that a number of the portions in the photoresist layer corresponding to the at least one period is greater than N.