The present work deals with a pulsed microwave discharge in an Ar/CF4 gas mixture under a low pressure (1-10 mbar). The discharge chamber developed has a cylindrical geometry with a coupling window alternatively made of quartz or alumina. The setup allows one to investigate the plasma-wall interactions (here etching of the quartz window) and the ignition process of the pulsed microwave plasma. Microwave pulses with a a duration of 50-200 mu s and repetition rate between 1 and 10 kHz are typical for the experiments. The space-time behavior of the fluorine number density in the discharge has been investigated experimentally by optical actinometry. The discharge kinetics is modeled using electron-transport parameter sand rate coefficients derived from solutions of the Boltzmann equation. Together with the solution of the continuity and electron balance equations and the rate equations describing the production of CFx(x = 2, 3, 4) radicals and F atoms, a good agreement between experimental and theoretical data can be achieved.