The electrical and optical properties of the a-Si:H films deposited by inductively-coupled plasma chemical vapour deposition (ICP-CVD) have been investigated. The ICP-CVD a-Si:H films deposited at 30 mTorr exhibited the deposition rate of 0.9 Angstrom/s and the hydrogen content of 17 at.%. A novel coplanar self-aligned a-Si:H thin film transistor has been fabricated using Ni-silicide gate and source/drain contacts. The coplanar a-Si:H TFT exhibited a field effect mobility of 0.6 cm(2/)Vs, a threshold voltage of 2.3 V, a subthreshold slope of 0.5 V/dec.