Nitrogen trifluoride is an industrial specialty gas, primarily used as a propellant (rockets), fluorinating agent, electronic gas, plasma dry etching, and for doping, lasers, and optical fibers.
Pure NF3 gas is a colorless and odorless gas. When mixed with a certain amount of impurity gases, it turns yellow and may have a musty or irritating odor. NF3 gas is non-flammable but can support combustion. When the temperature exceeds 350°C, nitrogen trifluoride gas slowly decomposes, producing highly oxidative fluorine. Therefore, at high temperatures, it acts as a strong oxidizer.
Nitrogen trifluoride is used as a fluorine source for hydrogen fluoride-fluorine gas high-energy chemical lasers. The effective portion of the reaction energy (about 25%) between H2-O2 and F2 can be released as laser radiation, making the HF-OF laser one of the most promising chemical lasers. Nitrogen trifluoride is an excellent plasma etching gas in the microelectronics industry. For etching silicon and silicon nitride, NF3 offers higher etching rates and selectivity compared to carbon tetrafluoride and its mixture with oxygen, and it leaves no contamination on the surface. Especially in the etching of integrated circuit materials with thicknesses less than 1.5um, NF3 exhibits excellent etching rates and selectivity, leaving no residues on the etched surface and also serving as a very good cleaning agent. With the development of nanotechnology and the large-scale advancement of the electronics industry, its demand is expected to increase significantly.
Nitrogen trifluoride is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and non-flammable gas widely used in semiconductor processing, solar cell manufacturing, and liquid crystal display manufacturing, primarily as an etchant, cleaning agent, and fluorinating agent for preparing WF6. It is also used as an oxidizer and propellant in rocket launches. The proportion of its application in different fields is as follows:

Source: Bosidata Research

The "2018-2023 China Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) Market Analysis and Investment Prospects Research Report" released by Bosidata indicates that the development of the nitrogen trifluoride industry in China can be roughly divided into three stages: initially, it was used in the defense industry, mainly for small-scale self-production; then, with economic development at the end of the last century, research on the industrialization of nitrogen trifluoride rapidly advanced, and NF3 for the electronics industry emerged; the third stage is the recent rapid development of the electronics industry, leading to the commissioning of domestic NF3 production lines, with manufacturing levels now comparable to those of developed countries.