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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/advanced-interconnect-metallization-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Semiconductors · Patent LandscapeAdvanced Interconnect Metallization Patents: Who Holds the Claim Space
- Filing has flattened, not grown. annual filings peaked at 18 in 2021 and the 2022 midpoint of 15 shows a plateau rather than continued expansion, even before the reporting lag is factored in.
- H01L absorbs nearly all of it. 754 of 771 records sit in H01L, with C25D electroplating-specific filings at just 26 — the process-chemistry side of the field is comparatively thin.
- The US is the dominant filing venue. 488 records were filed at the USPTO against 69 at WIPO and 50 at the EPO, so US prosecution history is where most of the enforceable prior art sits.
771
Published Records
40%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-61%
3-Yr Growth (lag-adjusted)
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Advanced interconnect metallization spans the barrier, seed and fill steps that turn a patterned dielectric into a working copper wiring stack: barrier/seed layer deposition, electroplating fill chemistry, void formation control, liner materials and the electromigration behaviour of the finished line. The search set combines title-level terms for interconnect metallization, copper interconnect and barrier seed layer with title/claim terms for electroplating fill, void formation, resistivity scaling, liner material and electromigration, restricted to the H01L21, H01L23 and C25D7 IPC classes.
771 patent families were returned across the 2015-2026 window. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years in the trend understate real filing activity and should be read as provisional.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Advanced Interconnect Metallization covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 771-family set: how filing volume has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
A plateau after 2021
Filings rose to a peak of 18 in 2021, sat at 15 by the 2022 midpoint, and the trailing years read down toward the incomplete 2026 count. That pattern is consistent with a field where the dominant architecture is settled and incremental claims are still being layered on top of it, rather than one still being actively opened up.
H01L dominates; process chemistry is a minority share
754 of 771 records touch H01L (semiconductor devices), with H10P and H10W subclass overlays present in a large share of those. C23C (coating and surface deposition) accounts for 69 records and C25D (electroplating and electroforming) for only 26 — a reminder that most of the claim density in this dataset is architectural and structural, not focused on the plating bath or deposition chemistry itself.
Shares are the percentage of the 771 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Advanced Interconnect Metallization covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited prior art
Representative filing
Compositions for improving interconnect metallization performance in integrated circuits
NXP B.V.
The filing covers interconnect metallization lines given an electromigration-impeding aluminum-copper-zinc composition, with zinc content deliberately raised well above the roughly 0.5 weight percent of copper used in prior aluminum-copper alloys, and a preferred zinc range of about 1 to 2 weight percent.US6459153B1 — NXP B.V. — 2002-10-01
Highest-citation records in the corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5969422A | Plated copper interconnect structure | 836 |
| 2 | US5891513A | Electroless CU deposition on a barrier layer by CU contact displacement for ULSI applications | 587 |
| 3 | US5824599A | Protected encapsulation of catalytic layer for electroless copper interconnect | 568 |
| 4 | US7172497B2 | Fabrication of semiconductor interconnect structures | 550 |
| 5 | US6197688B1 | Interconnect structure in a semiconductor device and method of formation | 509 |
| 6 | US5897375A | Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurry for copper and method of use in integrated circuit manufacture | 352 |
| 7 | US6001730A | Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurry for polishing copper interconnects which use tantalum-based barrie… | 338 |
| 8 | US5447887A | Method for capping copper in semiconductor devices | 334 |
| 9 | US6441492B1 | Diffusion barriers for copper interconnect systems | 327 |
| 10 | US6368954B1 | Method of copper interconnect formation using atomic layer copper deposition | 314 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so this table favours older, foundational filings over recent ones — treat it as a map of influence, not of current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Advanced Interconnect Metallization covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers say about the field
Read together, the trend line, the IPC split and the citation table point to a mature, claim-dense field with a narrow band of remaining process-chemistry headroom.
Filing momentum
18 in 2021
peak filing year
Growth has stalled since the 2021 peak
Annual filings climbed to 18 in 2021 and had already eased to 15 by the 2022 midpoint. That is a plateau signature, not a growth curve, and it suggests the core architectural claims for copper-based interconnect metallization are largely staked out.
Interpretation: file defensively around existing structures rather than expecting open architecture claims.
Technology mix
754 of 771
records touching H01L
The claim space is structural, not chemical
H01L semiconductor-device classifications cover 754 of the 771 families, while C25D electroplating-specific filings number only 26. The imbalance means most protection is written around device and interconnect structure rather than bath chemistry or plating process parameters.
Interpretation: process-chemistry claims may face less crowded prior art than structural ones.
Filing geography
488 US filings
vs 69 PCT, 50 EPO
US prosecution carries the field's history
United States filings outnumber the next-largest venue, WIPO's PCT route, by more than six to one, and outnumber EPO filings nearly tenfold. Freedom-to-operate work in this space has to start with US file histories even for companies whose main markets are in Asia or Europe.
Interpretation: US prior art review is not optional groundwork here, it is the core of the search.
Prior art influence
836 citations
top-cited record
Foundational patents still anchor the field
The most-cited record in the set, on plated copper interconnect structure, carries 836 citations, and the next four most-cited records are all copper-electroless or barrier-layer filings from the same technology transition. New filings are still being read against that foundational layer.
Interpretation: citation weight favours the 1990s-2000s copper transition, not recent filers.
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Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to advanced interconnect metallization, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Advanced Interconnect Metallization covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who holds the claim space
Assignee activity is concentrated among a small group of integrated device manufacturers and equipment suppliers, with co-filing patterns pointing to internal inventor teams rather than cross-company collaboration.
Concentration
10 co-assignee pairs
recorded co-filings
Collaboration is internal, not cross-company
The strongest co-assignee pairs in the dataset link a single equipment maker to its own named inventors rather than to other companies, each appearing three times at a strength of 7. That pattern reads as internal R&D teams filing together, not joint ventures or cross-licensing structures.
Watch for named inventor teams moving between filings as a proxy for internal expertise concentration.
Recent activity
0 in latest year
across leading assignees
Momentum has cooled across the board
Every one of the leading assignees tracked shows zero filings in the latest recorded year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this likely reflects reporting delay rather than an actual stop in R&D, but it does mean the visible trend line understates current activity for all of them equally.
Re-check momentum rankings once the next 12-18 months of publications land.
Filing venue
488 US records
of 771 total
US filings dominate the visible activity
With 488 of 771 records filed in the United States, the bulk of enforceable claim language for this field sits in US patents and applications, with Taiwan and Singapore next at 34 and 33 respectively — both jurisdictions with heavy foundry presence.
Foundry-heavy jurisdictions (Taiwan, Singapore) merit a dedicated FTO pass alongside the US.
Recent-year filing momentum
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | — |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | 0 | — |
| Lam Research Corporation | 0 | — |
| Intel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) | 0 | — |
| Texas Instruments | 0 | — |
| Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing | 0 | — |
| Motorola | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Advanced Interconnect Metallization covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this
The trend and assignee data point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing or competitive tracking.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on US filings
With 488 of 771 records filed at the USPTO, any product clearing this space needs a US-focused prior art review before a Taiwan or EPO check, not after.
Explore FTO workflows in EurekaProbe the electroplating-chemistry gap
Only 26 records sit in C25D against 754 in H01L, suggesting bath and process-chemistry claims face a thinner prior art wall than structural interconnect claims.
Search white space in EurekaTrack the next 18 months of publications
Every leading assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, which the publication lag makes unreliable as a real signal; re-run assignee momentum once the backlog clears.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Advanced Interconnect Metallization covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on interconnect metallization patents
The dataset shows activity concentrated among a small set of integrated device manufacturers and semiconductor equipment suppliers, with the strongest internal co-filing patterns appearing around a single equipment maker's inventor teams. Rather than naming a fixed top list, it is more useful to look at the ranking table on this page, since positions shift as more recent filings publish. All of the leading assignees tracked show zero filings in the latest recorded year, which is very likely a publication-lag artefact rather than a real slowdown for any one company.
No, the filing trend in this 771-family dataset peaked at 18 filings in 2021 and had already eased to 15 by 2022, which reads as a plateau rather than continued growth. Combined with the heavy concentration of claims in structural H01L categories, this points to a field where the core architecture is largely settled. Expect incremental and combination claims going forward rather than new foundational architecture filings.
Barrier layer claims cover materials and structures, commonly tantalum/tantalum nitride based, that stop copper from diffusing into the surrounding dielectric, while seed layer claims cover the thin conductive layer deposited to enable subsequent electroplating fill. Both fall inside the H01L21/H01L23 classification range used in this dataset and both are heavily represented, since 754 of 771 records touch H01L. Liner material claims, called out separately in the search terms, often sit at the boundary between the two, describing composite barrier/seed stacks.
The clearest gap in this dataset is process chemistry: C25D electroplating and electroforming filings number only 26 against 754 H01L records, meaning bath additive chemistry and fill-process claims are comparatively under-claimed relative to device structure claims. Sub-10nm void-free fill, alternative barrier materials beyond tantalum-based liners and liner-free low-resistivity schemes also show thinner representation. These are the branches worth a focused prior art search before committing R&D spend.
US6459153B1 claims an aluminum-copper-zinc electromigration-impeding composition for interconnect metallization lines, with zinc content deliberately raised above the level used in earlier aluminum-copper alloys. It matters as a representative example of composition-based claims in this field rather than as the single most-cited record; the most-cited prior art in this dataset is the earlier copper interconnect and electroless deposition patents from the 1990s. Anyone filing alloy-composition claims for electromigration resistance should check it and its citing family alongside those foundational copper records.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Advanced Interconnect Metallization covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company's registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.