An environmentally benign etching process using a solid material evaporation technique has been investigated for preventing global warming. In this process, a polytetrafluoroethylene is evaporated by a CO2 laser, resulting in production of fluorocarbon species working as the etching species. Therefore, this system employs no perfluorocompound feed gases, which cause global warming, and enables us to design a new plasma chemistry using the solid material. The system was successfully applied to a SiO2 contact hole etching process employing a planar electron cyclotron resonance plasma. The etched profile was successfully controlled by varying the Ar dilution ratio and the process pressure. In a 0.6 mum contact hole and a 0.08 mum trench fabrication process, this novel process enables us to realize high etching performances, where the etching rate Of SiO2, selectivities of SiO2/resist, and SiO2/Si were 340 nm/min, 6.8 and 31, respectively, in optimal condition. To clarify the plasma chemistry using solid material evaporation, CFx (x = 1-3) radical densities and F atom density were measured by infrared diode laser absorption spectroscopy and actinometric optical emission spectroscopy, and fluorocarbon films deposited on SiO2 were analyzed by x-ray. photoelectron spectroscopy. On the basis of these results, the etching mechanism was discussed. (C) 2002 American Vacuum Society.