MgO thin films were deposited by internal ICP-assisted reactive-magnetron sputtering with bipolar pulse bias on a substrate to suppress random arcs. Mg is reactively sputtered by a bipolar pulsed DC power of 100 kHz into ICP generated by a dielectrically shielded internal antenna. At a mass flow ratio of $Ar/O_2$ = 10 : 2 and an ICP/sputter power ratio of 1 : 1, optimal film properties were obtained (a powder-like crystal orientation distribution and a RMS surface roughness of approximately 0.42 nm). A bipolar pulse substrate bias at a proper frequency (~a few kHz) prevented random arc events. The crystalline preferred orientations varied between the (111), (200) and (220) orientations. By optimizing the plasma conditions, films having similar bulk crystallinity characteristics (JCPDS data) were successfully obtained.