A thermally stable Pd/Ge/Ti/Pt/ ohmic contact with low specific contact resistance was formed on both n and p+-GaAs. The lowest specific contact resistances were 4.7×10−7 and 6.4×10−7 Ω.cm2 for the n and p+-GaAs, respectively, when the n-GaAs was doped with Si to 2×1018cm−3, and the p+-GaAs was doped with carbon to 5×1019 cm−3. Interfacial reactions and element diffusions of the contacts were investigated by using transmission electron microscopy, Auger electron spectrometry with depth profiles. All the contacts were thermally stable at 300 °C for 20 hours, and it appeared that the p-contacts were more stable than the n-contacts.