$SiO_2$ etch characteristics were studied as a function of the basic parameters, such as the main RF power and the operating pressure in a helicon plasma. $SiO_2$ etch characteristics were improved as the main RF power was increased and the operating pressure was decreased. $SiO_2$ etch selectivity over silicon increased from 2.9 to 25.33 when the RF input power increased from 300 W to 2 kW and from 2.3 to 16.21 when the operating pressure decreased from 10 mTorr to 1.5 mTorr with $C_4F_8$ plasma. We used a quadrupole mass spectrometer to measure the relative abundancies of various ionic and radical species to explain the experimental results and found that when the operating pressure is low and the RF input power is high, the highly selective $SiO_2$ etch is achieved as a result of density increment of the densities of various ionic species.