The invention provides a carbon nanotube field effect transistor including a nanotube having a length suspended between source and drain electrodes. A gate dielectric material coaxially coats the suspended nanotube length and at least a portion of the source and drain electrodes. A gate metal layer coaxially coats the gate dielectric material along the suspended nanotube length and overlaps a portion of the source and drain electrodes, and is separated from those electrode portions by the gate dielectric material. The nanotube field effect transistor is fabricated by coating substantially the full suspended nanotube length and a portion of the source and drain electrodes with a gate dielectric material. Then the gate dielectric material along the suspended nanotube length and at least a portion of the gate dielectric material on the source and drain electrodes are coated with a gate metal layer.