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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/atomic-and-quantum-inertial-sensors-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Atomic & Quantum Inertial SensorsAtomic and Quantum Inertial Sensors Patents: Who Leads and Where the Field Is Still Open
- 58.3% concentration. The top 5 of 30 ranked assignees hold 56 of 96 records in scope — a field led by a small group rather than a fragmented one.
- Growth has cooled, not collapsed. Filings ran 7 in 2021 down to 4 in 2024, a 43% decline over that span, even as the field peaked at 9 filings in 2023.
- Particle-handling classes dominate. G21K (particle & radiation handling) touches 44.8% of records, ahead of G01C navigation/gyroscope classes at 37.5% — the physics of cold-atom generation is claimed more heavily than the navigation application itself.
96
Published Records
58%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-43%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (4) — 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 96 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this patent set covers
This landscape covers patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine core atom-interferometry or atomic-spin-gyroscope claims with system-level elements such as cold atom sourcing, interrogation time control, vibration isolation, or chip-scale packaging. That pairing matters: a raw atom-interferometer patent search returns fundamental physics claims, while adding the system-integration terms isolates filings aimed at making the sensor deployable rather than merely demonstrable in a lab.
96 records sit in scope, filed mainly through the United States, the European Patent Office and WIPO's PCT route, with smaller volumes from Australia, the United Kingdom and China. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years of the trend will fill in further as more applications publish.
Filing activity and technology composition
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Atomic and Quantum Inertial Sensors 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
The data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 96-record set: how filing activity has moved year on year, and how it splits across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 9 in 2023, then eased to 4 by 2024 (2021 to 2024 shows a 43% decline). 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a falling trend on their own.
IPC subclass composition
G21K (particle and radiation handling) appears in 44.8% of the 96 records, ahead of G01C navigation and gyroscope classes at 37.5% and G01V gravity-survey classes at 35.4%. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should each be read against the full 96-record base, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 96 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 Atomic and Quantum Inertial Sensors covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Most-cited records in this set
Representative recent filing
Measurement protocol for large dynamic range and high sensitivity of an evanescent-field-mode guided atom interferometer (US12392611B1)
NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS OF SANDIA, LLC
A large-dynamic and high-sensitive measurement protocol for an evanescent-field-mode guided atom interferometer accelerometer. Cold atoms of finite temperature are one-dimensionally guided in an evanescent-field optical dipole trap; a first-step pathfinder protocol uses revival of atomic coherence to capture a global interferometric signature, informing the physical parameters used in a second-step high-precision guided measurement.Filed by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, published 2025-08-19.
Highest-citation records
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN106959473A | 一种可移动冷原子绝对重力加速度传感器 | 45 |
| 2 | US9086429B1 | High data rate atom interferometric device | 45 |
| 3 | US8941053B1 | High data-rate atom interferometers through high recapture efficiency | 29 |
| 4 | US20160298967A1 | Ring architecture for sequential operation of an atomic gyroscope | 27 |
| 5 | US20140375998A1 | Atom interferometry having spatially resolved phase | 26 |
| 6 | US20170370840A1 | Separated Parallel Beam Generation for Atom Interferometry | 24 |
| 7 | US20110101972A1 | Gradient Magnetometer Atom Interferometer | 20 |
| 8 | US20160216114A1 | Large-area atom interferometry with frequency-swept raman adiabatic passage | 19 |
| 9 | US20130213135A1 | Atom interferometer with adaptive launch direction and/or position | 14 |
| 10 | CN111863306A | 一种速度可调的大束流冷原子源 | 13 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus; read them as a signal of influence on subsequent filings, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. 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 Atomic and Quantum Inertial Sensors 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 mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs on concentration, timing and claim density that matter more than any single ranking row.
Concentration
58.3%
of 96 records held by top 5 of 30 ranked assignees
A small leadership group, not a fragmented field
The top 5 assignees out of 30 ranked hold 56 of the 96 records in scope, and the top 10 extend that to 89.6%. A new entrant is filing into a space where a handful of organisations already occupy most of the claim territory.
Based on the full 30-assignee ranking returned by the dataset.
Momentum
-43%
filing change, 2021 to 2024
Growth has cooled from its 2023 peak
Filings peaked at 9 in 2023 after climbing steadily from 6 in 2017, then fell to 4 by 2024 — a 43% decline over the 2021-2024 window. This reads as a maturing filing cycle among the established leaders rather than exit from the field.
2025-2026 figures remain incomplete due to publication lag.
Claim density
44.8%
of records touch G21K particle & radiation handling
Cold-atom generation is claimed harder than navigation output
G21K classes appear in 44.8% of the 96 records, more than the G01C navigation/gyroscope classes at 37.5%. Prior art is denser around producing and manipulating the cold-atom source than around packaging that source into a navigation-grade output.
IPC shares are computed against the full 96-record base and overlap by design.
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Co-filing patterns
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Observatoire de Paris | 8 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | INST DOPTIQUE GRADUATE SCHOOL | 8 |
| Observatoire de Paris | INST DOPTIQUE GRADUATE SCHOOL | 8 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Institut d'Optique Graduate School | 4 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | University of Bordeaux | 4 |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Exail | 4 |
| Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills | NPL Management Ltd | 2 |
Seven co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairings each recorded on 8 shared records — evidence of tight academic-institutional collaboration clusters rather than broad cross-industry co-filing.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Atomic and Quantum Inertial Sensors 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 is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders come from a mix of national labs, defence-linked research bodies and instrumentation firms; momentum in the latest year has slowed across the group.
Leader
15 records
top-ranked assignee
A single leader well ahead of fifth place
The top-ranked assignee holds 15 records against 8 at fifth place and 4 at tenth — a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-plus-field pattern rather than an even spread.
Counted in patent families across the 96-record set.
Mid-field
8 records
fifth-place assignee
A cluster of national-lab and university filers
Government research bodies, national metrology institutes and university groups make up much of the mid-field, often filing jointly with the same one or two partners repeatedly.
See co-filing pattern above for the strongest pairings.
Latest year
0
filings in the latest year for tracked leaders
Recent-year momentum has gone quiet across the board
None of the leading assignees tracked show a filing in the latest year, consistent with the broader publication-lag effect rather than a sign that any one of them has stopped working the technology.
Publication lag of roughly 18 months affects the most recent one to two years.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | 0 | — |
| Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Observatoire de Paris | 0 | — |
| INST DOPTIQUE GRADUATE SCHOOL | 0 | — |
| The University of Birmingham | 0 | — |
| National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Atomic and Quantum Inertial Sensors 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 from here
The ranking and trend answer who and how much; the next questions are about specific claims and freedom to operate.
Check freedom to operate against the leader's claim set
With one assignee holding 15 of 96 records, a targeted claim-chart review of that portfolio is a faster filter than a full landscape re-read before committing engineering resources.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaMap the under-claimed sub-areas to your roadmap
Chip-scale packaging and dead-time compensation show thinner claim density than the core interferometer classes — worth a closer look if your architecture touches either.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrack the next 12-18 months of publications
Because 2025-2026 filings are still publishing, re-running this search in two quarters will surface activity that is currently invisible in the trend line.
Set up a monitoring alert in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Atomic and Quantum Inertial Sensors 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 atomic and quantum inertial sensor patents
One assignee leads the ranked group with 15 of the 96 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 8. The top 5 of 30 ranked assignees together hold 58.3% of all records, and the top 10 extend that to 89.6%, so the field is concentrated among a small set of national labs, defence-linked research organisations and instrumentation companies rather than spread evenly across many filers. A new entrant should expect to compete directly with an entrenched leadership group rather than find open ground at the top of the ranking.
Filings climbed from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 9 in 2023, then fell to 4 by 2024, a 43% decline over the 2021-2024 window. That said, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 is partly an artefact of records not yet having published rather than firms stepping back from the technology. The honest read is that the 2023 peak marked a high point and the field has since settled to a lower but still active filing rate.
US12392611B1, filed by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC and published in August 2025, claims a two-step measurement protocol for an evanescent-field-mode guided atom interferometer accelerometer. It combines a pathfinder step using revival of atomic coherence to capture a broad interferometric signature with a second high-precision guided measurement step tuned using the parameters from the first. It is one of the more recent filings in this dataset and is specific to guided, evanescent-field atom trapping rather than free-fall interferometer geometries, so it does not block approaches built on free-fall cold-atom drops.
Relative to the core interferometer and navigation classes, chip-scale vacuum packaging for cold-atom cells, dead-time compensation for continuous measurement, and portable vibration isolation for field deployment show comparatively thinner claim density in this dataset. G21K particle-handling claims cover 44.8% of the 96 records and G01C navigation claims cover 37.5%, while more integration-focused branches like B82Y nanotechnology applications sit at only 7.3%. That gap suggests the fundamental physics of generating and manipulating cold atoms is more heavily claimed than the packaging and deployment engineering needed to field the sensors.
The United States receives the largest share of filings in this dataset at 43 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 16 and the WIPO PCT route at 13. Australia and the United Kingdom each account for 5 records, and China accounts for 4. This distribution points to the US as the primary filing venue, with PCT filings suggesting many applicants are also pursuing broader international protection rather than filing nationally in each market.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Atomic and Quantum Inertial Sensors 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.