Vertical thin film transistors (TFTs) including a gate electrode pillar clad with a gate dielectric. The gate dielectric is further clad with a semiconductor layer. Source or drain metallization is embedded in trenches formed in an isolation dielectric adjacent to separate regions of the semiconductor layer. During TFT operation, biasing of the gate electrode can induce one or more transistor channel within the semiconductor layer, electrically coupling together the source and drain metallization. A width of the channel may be proportional to a height of the gate electrode pillar clad by the semiconductor layer, while a length of the channel may be proportional to the spacing between contacts occupied by the semiconductor layer. In some embodiments, a memory device may include cells comprising a vertical thin film select transistor and a capacitor (1TFT-1C).