Area Selective Deposition Patents: Filing Concentration and Open Claim Space
54.6% of all 357 records in scope sit with the top five assignees — filing here is heavily concentrated rather than fragmented across many small players. Annual filings rose to a peak of 45 records in 2023. The 2021-to-2024 span moved from 23 to 17 records, a -26% change; treat 2025 and 2026 as undercounted rather than declining, since publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months.
- 1INTEL CORP64
- 2PRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE36
- 3TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO LTD32
- 4TOKYO ELECTRON LTD32
- 5SEMICON COMPONENTS IND LLC31
See the full area selective deposition analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about area selective deposition patents
What is area selective deposition in patent terms, and how is it distinguished from ordinary thin-film deposition claims?
Area selective deposition (ASD) claims describe methods for depositing or inhibiting film growth on chosen regions of a substrate without a full lithographic mask-and-etch step, typically using self-assembled monolayers or selective growth inhibitors. This distinguishes ASD claims from general thin-film deposition, which usually covers blanket film formation. In this dataset, the search string combines ASD-specific terms like deposition inhibitor and selective growth with process markers such as bottom-up fill, non-growth area and edge placement error, which is how the 357 records in scope were identified.
Who holds the most area selective deposition patents?
The assignee ranking in this dataset covers 100 companies counted by record, with one leading assignee holding 64 records — more than double the fifth-place count of 31. The top five assignees combined account for 54.6% of all 357 records in scope, and the top ten account for 74.8%. That leaves a long tail of assignees filing only one or two records each, so the field is concentrated at the top but not closed to new entrants.
Is area selective deposition patent filing growing or slowing down?
Filings rose year over year to a peak of 45 records in 2023. Looking at the most recent span that can be treated as complete, 2021 to 2024, the count moved from 23 to 17 records, a -26% change. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the lower counts showing for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in and should not be read as confirmation of a further decline.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Area Selective Deposition covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.