The aim of this study is to improve the electrical properties of ohmic contacts that plays crucial role on the performance of optoelectronic devices such as laser diodes (LDs), light emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodetectors (PDs). The conventional (Pd/Ir/Au. Ti/Pt/Au and Pt/Ti/Pt/Au), Au and non-Au based rare earth metal-silicide ohmic contacts (Gd/Si/Ti/Au. Gd/Si/Pt/Au and Gd/Si/Pt) to p-InGaAs were investigated and compared each other. To calculate the specific contact resistivities the Transmission Line Model (TLM) was used. Minimum specific contact resistivity of the conventional contacts was found as 0.111 x 10(-6) Omega cm(2) for Pt/Ti/Pt/Au contact at 400 degrees C annealing temperature. For the rare earth metal-silicide ohmic contacts, the non-Au based Gd/Si/Pt has the minimum value of 4.410 x 10(-6) cm(2) at 300 C annealing temperature. As a result, non-Au based Gd/Si/Pt contact shows the best ohmic contact behavior at a relatively low annealing temperature among the rare earth metal-silicide ohmic contacts. Although the Au based conventional ohmic contacts are thermally stable and have lower noise in electronic circuits, by using the non-Au based rare earth metal-silicide ohmic contacts may overcome the problems of Au-based ohmic contacts such as higher cost, poorer reliability, weaker thermal stability, and the device degradation due to relatively higher alloying temperatures. To the best of our knowledge, the Au and non-Au based rare earth metal-silicide (GdSix) ohmic contacts to p-InGaAs have been proposed for the first time. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.