Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Alloys Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filings have cooled since 2018. the peak year for this dataset, with the 2022 midpoint already down to half that level — a maturing claim landscape, not a growing one.
- Japan out-files the US by a wide margin. 871 records route through the Japanese office versus 575 through the USPTO, reflecting where core soft-magnetic and casting know-how is concentrated.
- The most-cited prior art is decades old. the top-cited record, US5288344A on beryllium-bearing amorphous alloys, has 760 citations — a sign of foundational influence, not current activity.
Filing growth compares 2021 (27 records) with 2024 (16) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 2,576 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families describing amorphous alloys, metallic glasses and nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloys, filtered to documents that discuss glass forming ability, rapid solidification, core loss, permeability or annealing crystallization behaviour. The IPC scope spans C22C45 (amorphous alloy compositions), H01F1 (magnetic materials for cores, inductors and transformers) and C21D6 (heat treatment), which is why the technology composition below skews toward composition claims and magnetic-property claims rather than end-device claims.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in the trend chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — treat the tail as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing trends and technology composition
Annual filing counts and IPC composition for the 2,576 patent families in scope, plus where applicants chose to seek protection.
Filings peaked in 2018 and have since declined
Annual filings ran from 54 in 2017 to a peak of 72 in 2018, then eased to 35 by the 2022 midpoint and down to single digits by the most recent (partial) year. Read the last one to two years as understated given publication lag, but the multi-year decline from the 2018 peak is a real trend, not an artefact.
Alloy composition and magnetics dominate the classification mix
C22C (alloys) appears on 1,933 records and H01F (magnets, inductors and transformers) on 1,585, together forming the backbone of the corpus. Heat treatment (C21D, 426), casting (B22D, 260) and powder metallurgy (B22F, 244) form a secondary tier tied to processing routes, while information storage (G11B, 172) and surface coating (C23C, 167) mark smaller, more specialised application branches.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,576 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Alloys with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art everyone in this space cites
Magnesium-based amorphous alloy with improved glass forming ability and ductility
Disclosed is a magnesium based amorphous alloy having a good glass forming ability and ductility, defined across a composition range where the base Mg is alloyed with elements from the group Cu, Ni, Zn, Al, Ag and Pd, together with elements from the group Gd, Y, Ca and Nd, each held within specified atomic-percent bands.Filed by Samsung Electronics, published 2005-12-22 — illustrative of how composition-range claims are structured in this field.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5288344A | Berylllium bearing amorphous metallic alloys formed by low cooling rates | 760 |
| 2 | US5735975A | Quinary metallic glass alloys | 575 |
| 3 | US5368659A | Method of forming berryllium bearing metallic glass | 540 |
| 4 | US5618359A | Metallic glass alloys of Zr, Ti, Cu and Ni | 476 |
| 5 | US5278377A | Electromagnetic radiation susceptor material employing ferromagnetic amorphous alloy particles | 150 |
| 6 | US5976274A | Soft magnetic amorphous alloy and high hardness amorphous alloy and high hardness tool using the same | 140 |
| 7 | US4402770A | Hard magnetic alloys of a transition metal and lanthanide | 138 |
| 8 | US4701226A | Corrosion resistant amorphous chromium-metalloid alloy compositions | 121 |
| 9 | JP1993327274A | Electromagnetic wave shielding material | 114 |
| 10 | US6258185B1 | Methods of forming steel | 109 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and favour older, foundational filings — treat them as a measure of influence on later applicants, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are put side by side: where activity concentrates, where it is thinning, and where the foundational art still casts a long shadow.
Activity has been declining since 2018
The peak year, 2018, saw 72 filings; by the 2022 midpoint that had halved to 35, and the latest partial year sits far lower still. Even allowing for publication lag understating the last one to two years, the multi-year direction is down rather than flat.
Japan leads filing volume by a clear margin
Japan's 871 records outpace the US (575) and EPO (367) combined receiving-office share is still smaller than Japan alone, with China (223), WIPO/PCT (117) and South Korea (86) trailing further. That ordering tracks with where nanocrystalline soft-magnetic and rapid-solidification manufacturing know-how has historically sat.
The most-cited art predates most of the corpus
The top five most-cited records include beryllium-bearing and Zr-Ti-Cu-Ni metallic glass compositions from the 1990s, with the leading record alone cited 760 times inside this corpus. That concentration signals a small set of foundational composition families that later filings build on or design around.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where the ground is open
Assignee activity in this corpus is led by a mix of Japanese materials and electronics majors, a US-based metallic-glass specialist, and academic-industrial co-filing pairs — but recent-year momentum has slowed across the group.
Academic-industrial pairs run deep in this field
The strongest co-assignee link in the dataset pairs a materials specialist with an academic inventor across 74 shared families, and a second pair tied to a named individual inventor spans 37 more. This points to long-running, named-inventor research programmes rather than diffuse corporate portfolios.
Even the top assignees show no recent-year filings
Every one of the leading assignees tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year of the dataset. Combined with the overall decline from the 2018 peak, this suggests the leading players have largely completed their core composition filing and are not currently expanding claim scope in this exact search space.
Processing-route classes sit behind the core composition classes
Beyond the dominant C22C and H01F classes, casting (B22D), powder metallurgy (B22F) and non-ferrous treatment (C22F) each carry a meaningful but smaller share of records. These processing-route classes are where new entrants without a strong composition portfolio have room to differentiate.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Hitachi Metals Amorphous Metals, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | — |
| California Institute of Technology | 0 | — |
| Nippon Steel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Metglas, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Alps Alpine Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| TDK Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with concentrated foundational art and slowing new filing. Two directions make sense depending on what you need to decide.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the top-cited families
Before drafting composition claims in beryllium-bearing or Zr-Ti-Cu-Ni metallic glass space, check filing status and jurisdictional coverage of the most-cited records directly rather than relying on citation rank alone.
Check claims in Eureka →Map the processing-route classes for open claim space
Casting, powder metallurgy and heat-treatment classes carry lower filing density than core composition classes and may offer more room for a defensible first claim.
Explore white space in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
The dataset's assignee ranking is led by a mix of Japanese electronics and materials majors alongside a US-based metallic-glass specialist, with several strong academic-industrial co-filing pairs also present. Rather than a single dominant holder, the field shows concentration among a handful of long-running programmes, several of which pair a corporate assignee with a named academic inventor across dozens of shared families. Recent-year filing momentum has slowed across all of the leading assignees tracked, so historical rank does not necessarily indicate who is filing today.
Filings peaked in 2018 at 72 in this dataset and have declined since, falling to 35 by the 2022 midpoint and to a small handful in the most recent year. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the very latest year always understates true activity, so the last year or two should not be read as a cliff. But the multi-year direction from the 2018 peak through the 2022 midpoint is a genuine decline rather than a data artefact.
Japan leads with 871 records at its receiving office in this dataset, ahead of the United States at 575 and the European Patent Office at 367. China, the WIPO/PCT route and South Korea follow with smaller but non-trivial shares. This ordering reflects where soft-magnetic materials and rapid-solidification manufacturing expertise has historically been concentrated, and it is a reasonable starting filter for freedom-to-operate searches in this field.
In this corpus, amorphous alloy and metallic glass filings tend to sit under the C22C alloy-composition classification and emphasise glass forming ability and rapid solidification, while nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloy filings lean more heavily on H01F magnetics classification and emphasise core loss, permeability and annealing crystallization behaviour. Many records touch both aspects, since nanocrystalline alloys are typically produced by first forming an amorphous ribbon and then controlling its crystallization through annealing. Heat treatment classification (C21D) is a useful signal for filings focused specifically on that annealing step.
The processing-route classes — casting, powder metallurgy and non-ferrous metal treatment — carry noticeably lower filing density than the core composition and magnetics classes, suggesting more room for a defensible first claim there. Specific sub-areas worth a closer look include rapid-solidification process control for ribbon casting, nanocrystallization annealing profiles aimed at low core-loss cores, and powder-metallurgy routes to nanocrystalline soft magnets. Given that recent-year filings from the leading assignees have dropped to zero, a well-scoped claim in these adjacent branches may face less crowded prior art than a new composition claim would.
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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.