X

X-ray lithography

The lithographic process for transferring patterns to a silicon wafer in which the electromagnetic radiation used is X-ray, rather than visible radiation. The shorter wavelength for X-rays (10-50 angstroms, versus 2000-3000 angstroms for ultra-violet radiation) minimizes diffraction, and extends the useful range of lithography towards 0.1µm. Optical lithography is currently thought to be limited to feature sizes above 0.25-0.3µm. See lithography and angstrom.

X windows

Commercial operating software that overlays the operating system of computers and allows workstation users to manage multiple processes with a graphical interface. Window managers, such as Motif and OpenLook, provide the specific user interface to X.