The field effect transistor FET (30) in accordance with the invention includes a substrate or layer (31) in which areas in which transistors are formed are separated by shallow isolation trenches (32) formed of an oxide or other insulative material. Metal source and drain deposits (33), preferably of tungsten, extend into the substrate or layer (31) for a distance beyond shallow junction structures (34), adjacent to the source and drain (33) and serving to connect the source and drain to the conduction channel of the FET which extends between them. Gate (35) of N+ polysilicon or polycide is insulated from the conduction channel by gate insulator (37), preferably formed of an oxide of the substrate material. Gate oxide (37) extends over the shallow junctions structure (34) between the metal source and drain deposits (33). Oxide gate sidewalls (38) cover the region between the gate edges and the edge of the metal source and drain deposits (33). The gate sidewalls (38) are also preferably covered with a thin (e.g. 40 nm) nitride spacer (39). Optionally, a cap of polycide or metal such as tungsten (particularly if polycide is used for the gate) can be provided on the gate. This ultra-short channel FET provides a combination of a shallow junction for injection of carriers into a conduction channel and a Schottky barrier below the shallow junction with a lowered barrier height to reduce the depletion region and punch-through effects. A preferred method of fabricating this structure which includes both etching and metal deposition selectively on only semiconductor material, thus allowing use of only a single patterning step with registration tolerances comparable to channel length while allowing extremely high integration density, is also disclosed herein.