High-temperature thin-film Pt-Ir thermocouple with fast time response

We have developed a thin-film Pt-Ir thermocouple which exhibits bulklike thermoelectric behavior up to 790°C, the highest temperature observed with thin-film pure-element thermocouples. Using a Q-switched Nd laser and a signal averaging oscilloscope, its thermal response time was measured to be 60 ns. The ease of implementation in electronic devices coupled with the reproducibility over a wide temperature range make this thin-film thermocouple well suited for monitoring instantaneous temperatures during device processing.