Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076. Supervisor(s): Rajiv O. Dusane, N. Venkataramani The project envisages the fabrication of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (mc-Si:H) thin film transistors (TFTs) using Hot-Wire Chemical Vapour Deposition (HWCVD) technique. The HWCVD, also known as Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition (Cat-CVD), involves thermal decomposition of SiH4 and H2 mixtures at a resistively heated filament (usually tungsten). The HWCVD technique has been proven to grow silicon thin films (amorphous and microcrystalline) at relatively high deposition rates (up to some nm/s) and low substrate temperatures (lower than 200oC). This makes the technique useful for large area thin film silicon devices onto low cost substrates. Microcrystalline silicon (mc-Si:H) is a composite material consisting of crystalline grains, an amorphous phase and voids where the structural composition strongly influences the electronic properties. The fundamental issue, of the deposited material being microcrystalline or amorphous, was obtained through X-ray diffraction. UV-visible ellipsometry was used to measure film thickness and to determine the refractive index. The hydrogen content of the films was investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The electronic properties were investigated by electrical conductivity (four-probe method) and Hall effect. The results of the conductivity and Hall measurements were compared with a theoretical and AMPS-1D simulation study. Ultrathin ~ 500A°, P-doped mc-Si:H thin film was used for application in TFTs. One dimensional simulation studies of electronic transport in n-type mc-Si:H were done using AMPS-1D. The performance of the TFTs was obtained from its output characteristics.