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.

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.

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.

H01L, the general semiconductor device class, appears in 84.3% of the 357 records in scope, reflecting ASD's core use in transistor and interconnect patterning. Coating and surface deposition (C23C) appears in 21.0% of records, and crystal growth (C30B) in 10.1%, while organic semiconductor applications (H10K) sit at 9.0%. Since a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages overlap rather than sum to a whole, and the smaller categories mark where ASD chemistry is being adapted beyond mainstream logic manufacturing.

Based on IPC composition, branches like organic semiconductor applications (H10K, 9.0% of records) and material analysis and testing (G01N, 8.7%) carry far fewer filings than the dominant H01L class, suggesting thinner claim density there relative to core logic-process ASD work. Sub-areas such as inhibitor chemistry for OLED stacks, selectivity-loss in-line detection, and etch-back correction for edge placement error show up as gate points worth checking before assuming the space is fully claimed. A proper freedom-to-operate search against the specific assignee portfolios active in those classes is still the necessary next step.