Zone plates are the key focusing element for many x-ray (7-20 keV) and soft x-ray (200-500 eV) applications, yet, production with electron-beam lithography poses obstacles to their widespread availability. In addition; fabrication processes-to date have limited the studies of amplitude Bragg-Fresnel-type elements in the hard x-ray regime. We report new processes that couple 100 keV electron-beam lithography. with established production methods to achieve two goals: (1) improving the overall yield and volume of ultrahigh-resolution soft x-ray zone plates and (2) applying deep silicon etching techniques to extend the state of the art in high aspect ratio Bragg-Fresnel optics required to create high efficiency focusing of high-energy x rays. (C) 2003 American Vacuum Society.