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 aQ‐switched Nd:YAG 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.