The utilization of CF3I in the plasma assisted dry etching of SiO2 has been studied in order to reduce the environmental impact of microelectronics device fabrication. The results show that CF3I is a promising substitute of CF4 in oxide etching since its utilization reduces 3-3.5 times the contribution to the global warming, nevertheless it still has a consistent effect on the environment for the plasma assisted formation of perfluorocompounds.