Nitrogen trifluoride 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. In these applications is initially broken down within a plasma. The resulting fluorine radicals are the active agents that attack polysilicon, silicon nitride and silicon oxide. They can be used as well to remove tungsten silicide, tungsten, and certain other metals. In addition to serving as an etchant in device fabrication, is also widely used to clean PECVD chambers.