Thin oxide films are deposited from tetramethoxysilane in an inductively coupled oxygen glow discharge supplied with radio frequency power. The deposition rate and the chemical bonding states of deposited films are analyzed by ellipsometry and by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively, and the intensities of light emission from molecules and radicals in the plasma are measured by optical emission spectroscopy. Langmuir probe is employed to estimate the plasma density and electron temperature. With these tools, the effects of parameters such as r.f. power of inductive coupling, substrate bias power, oxygen partial pressure ratio, total pressure on the properties of the film and of the plasma are investigated. The correlation between the properties of the film and the characteristics of the plasma are explained wherever possible. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.