Abstract: The invention is directed to a thin film transistor (TFT) wherein HF precleaning of a gate oxide layer is eliminated, thus avoiding surface degradation and maintaining the smoothness of the gate oxide layer. This results in a TFT that has low Ioff, low stand-by power, and high Ion/Ioff ratio. The invention forms a TFT by depositing a smooth surfaced TFT oxide layer over the TFT gate poly layer. The TFT gate poly layer includes a gate and a drain connection to the drain of a driver. No via hole is patterned over the TFT gate oxide before the TFT body film deposition. Therefore, no HF precleaning step is used. The TFT body layer is then deposited over the gate layer. Source and drain regions are formed in the TFT body layer. In order to connect to drain region of the TFT body layer with the drain connection in the TFT gate layer, a via is formed through the TFT drain and TFT oxide layer.