Despite the extensive research on the application of dielectric barrier discharge based plasma actuators for active flow control, there is little work on their thermal characteristics as well as their use in heat transfer applications. This paper studies the effect of the shape of the AC discharge cycle on the thermal characteristics of a thick dielectric based DBD actuator. Simultaneous infrared (IR) thermography measurements and iCCD imaging is conducted for four different input waveforms to observe for changes in the temperature distribution on the dielectric surface. Global variations of temperature and local correlation between temperature and light intensity are analysed in relation to the previously documented differences in discharge characteristics for the four waveforms.