In this letter, Ti/Pt/Au metal system has been investigated for the source/drain contact of MHEMT, the Ti/Pt/Au contact exhibits good ohmic contact characteristics with well thermal stability in the temperature range from 280 to 340°C. To further optimize the contact resistance, different metal deposition methods and contact layers are experimentally investigated. With sputtering Pd as an interlayer between Ti/Pt/Au and n+‐InGaAs, the specific contact resistivity is further reduced to 3.51 × 10−5 Ω cm2. Meanwhile, by adopting this metal contact system, the MHEMT shows good DC and RF characteristics, including full channel current of 75 mA/mm, extrinsic maximum transconductance gm.max of 96 ms/mm, unity current gain cutoff frequency fT of 60 GHz and maximum frequency of oscillation fmax of 156 GHz. These good electrical characteristics demonstrate that this metal contact system is beneficial for the performance improvement of MHEMT. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:217–221, 2016