In this paper, we report a comparative study of different double gate architectures. The main focus is on the fabrication method of two different device concepts developed in our group. The first is a planar version with special SOI wafers or deposited films and the second is a vertical transistor with lithography independent channel length. In addition to a thorough structural analysis we present electrical characteristics of the fabricated devices. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.