Carbon tetrafluoride is currently the most widely used plasma etching gas in the microelectronics industry. Its high-purity gas and the mixture of high-purity carbon tetrafluoride gas and high-purity oxygen can be widely applied in the etching of silicon, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, phosphosilicon glass and tungsten thin film materials. For silicon and silicon dioxide systems, when using CF4-H2 reactive ion etching, a selectivity of 45:1 can be achieved by adjusting the ratio of the two gases, which is very useful when etching silicon dioxide films on polycrystalline silicon gates.

It is also widely used in surface cleaning of electronic devices, production of solar cells, laser technology, gas-phase insulation, low-temperature refrigeration, leakage detection agents, control of the attitude of space rockets, and detergents in the production of printed circuits, etc.

Due to its extremely strong chemical stability, CF4 can also be used in the metal smelting and plastic industries, etc.

Carbon tetrafluoride has excellent oxygen solubility, so it is used by scientists in ultra-deep diving experiments to replace ordinary compressed air. So far, success has been achieved on mice. Within a depth ranging from 275 meters to 366 meters, the mice can still escape safely.