Silica and Ge-doped silica films have been deposited in a recently developed matrix distributed electron cyclotron resonance (MDECR) reactor. Process parameters were optimized in order to obtain films with low hydrogen content at a low substrate temperature keeping a high deposition rate. The choice of silane injection system is shown to be of crucial importance for the deposition of high quality material. Injection of silane near the surface resulting in increase of its local partial pressure allows to obtain films with a low OH adsorption independently of silane flow i.e. growth rate. Conversely, in the case of uniform distribution of silane in the reactor volume ("well-mixed reactor"), the hydrogen content increases with silane flow. Under optimal conditions, silica films with a low adsorption at the communication wavelengths have been deposited at rates up to 70 nm/min at temperatures lower than 150degreesC. Non-absorbing oxynitride films with refractive indices ranging from 1.46 to 1.81 have been obtained. Ge-doped silica was deposited using a mixture of 2% GeH4 in H-2 as a dopant gas. Germanium content, refractive index and adsorption coefficient of the films have been studied as a function of process parameters. The results show that the MDECR concept can be a technology of choice for the deposition of waveguide structures for integrated optical components.