US Patent 8956980 Selective etch of silicon nitride

A method of etching silicon nitride on patterned heterogeneous structures is described and includes a remote plasma etch formed from a fluorine-containing precursor and a nitrogen-and-oxygen-containing precursor. Plasma effluents from two remote plasmas are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents react with the silicon nitride. The plasmas effluents react with the patterned heterogeneous structures to selectively remove silicon nitride while very slowly removing silicon, such as polysilicon. The silicon nitride selectivity results partly from the introduction of fluorine-containing precursor and nitrogen-and-oxygen-containing precursor using distinct (but possibly overlapping) plasma pathways which may be in series or in parallel.