Tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS)-based SiO2 films were prepared in an RF reactor at various discharge powers and two substrate temperatures, and infra-red absorption spectra were taken for each deposited film using an FTIR spectrometer. Based on the FTIR observations, a model for the plasma and surface kinetics was developed. Using a proposed three-step reaction mechanism at the surface of a two-dimensional lattice, the growth rate of the films and the incorporation rate of Si-O-Si bridges into the films were derived as functions of the densities of the film precursors, oxygen atoms and molecular oxygen ions. The densities are further given by the uniform discharge model of our previous work as a function of the discharge power. According to the model, in the regime of high ratio of oxygen to TEOS flow the growth rate is governed by the film precursors generated from TEOS, and the incorporation rate is additionally determined by oxygen radicals and molecular oxygen ions and by the dehydration process. The growth rate was measured in mu m/min and the relative incorporation rate was obtained from the absorption intensity of Si-O-Si rocking mode in FTIR spectra. The formulation of the model was compared with the experimental results, and on the validity of the model was discussed.