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Perfluorocompounds commonly used by the microelectronics industry are considered potent global warming gases. These fully fluorinated compounds have global warming potentials thousands to tens of thousands times greater than that of carbon dioxide. Using gases with lower or zero global warming potential as replacements is an option for reducing this environmental threat. This thesis begins the work of determining the viability of using replacement chemistries as an option for controlling perfluorocompound emissions. This work was comprised of three stages. The first stage determined what processes used PFC most heavily and what past work on non-perfluorocompound chemistries was relevant. The second stage was a selection process of potential candidate chemistries. The third stage was a set of etch viability experiments on one of the families of candidate chemistries, namely the hydrofluorocarbons. By conducting an extensive literature and industry survey, it was determined that perfluorocompound usage is dominated by two processes: wafer patterning and in