Nitrogen Trifluoride
RARE & SPECIALITY GAS
Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) is a colorless, stable, and toxic gas with a characteristic moldy odor under ambient conditions. NF3 is used in many critical semiconductor applications.
Nitrogen Trifluoride has a commercial grade purity of 99.7%; AWA can provide higher purity NF3 for your more strict  requirements.
Nitrogen Trifluoride Specifications
| Atomic Weight | Molecular Weight | Density |
|---|---|---|
|
71.002 |
71.002 |
2.96kg/m3@20C |
Nitrogen Trifluoride Highlights
- Used as an etchant in microelectronics
- Used as key chemical agent used to manufacture certain types of photovoltaic cells for solar panels
Nitrogen Trifluoride Gas
Overview
Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) is an inorganic, colorless, non-flammable, toxic gas with a slightly musty odor. It is primarily used to remove silicon and silicon-compounds during the manufacturing of semiconductor devices such as LCD displays, some thin-film solar cells, and other microelectronics. Unlike the fluorinated carbons, Nitrogen Trifluoride is easy to decompose due to relatively low bond energy in N—F bond, and therefore can be a fluorine source.
NF3 has the ability to act as a stable fluorinating agent and has a wide application scope in high-energy laser at dry etching in semiconductor production as a filling gas in lamps to prolong their durability and increase brightness, as well as a detergent gas in CVD apparatus. For all these reasons, nitrogen trifluoride is increasingly used in the electronics industry, primarily for the etching of microcircuits, and for manufacturing of liquid crystal flat panel displays and thin film PV cells.
Once NF3 is released into the atmosphere, it circulates from the surface to the stratosphere hundreds of times before it is destroyed by solar ultraviolet radiation. It is nearly chemically inert in the atmosphere, and the average lifetime of an NF3 molecule in the atmosphere is about 550 years.