This paper addresses the issue of the dynamic response of thin lithographic mask structures to thermally induced stress fields. In particular, the impact of repetitively pulsed x‐ray sources are examined: the short duration (1–100 nsec) pulses induce large step changes in mask temperatures, which can, in turn, induce a dynamic response. The impact of conductive cooling of the mask is to reduce the repetitively pulsed problem to a series of isolated nearly identical thermal impulses of duration approximately equal to the cooling time. The importance of self‐weight and prestress is examined, and an analysis of the nonlinear dynamic response to thermal impulses is described.