Bidirectional DC-DC Converter Control System Patent Landscape 2026
- Filing has already peaked. 2023 was the high point at 35 families; the midpoint year 2022 sat at 15, and the trend since is flat to declining rather than climbing toward a new peak.
- The claim space is almost entirely one subclass. 325 of 326 records sit in H02M, with H02J, B60L, G01R and G05F as thin secondary layers — control-loop claims outside power conversion itself are comparatively rare.
- The US is the dominant filing venue by a wide margin. 162 records route through the United States against 47 each for China and Europe, 34 for India, 18 for WIPO and 7 for the UK.
Filing growth compares 2021 (18 records) with 2024 (21) — 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 326 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Bidirectional DC-DC converter control covers the switching, sensing and feedback logic that lets a converter move power in either direction between two DC buses — the core function behind onboard chargers, energy storage interfaces and multi-port power modules. This landscape pulls 326 patent families published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, filtered to records that combine converter-topology language with control-method language in the claims, and narrowed by IPC to H02M3/335, H02M1/00 and G05B13.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the counts for the last one to two years are undercounts, not a real slowdown signal on their own — treat the 2026 figure as partial and read the trend from 2023 backward.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 326-family set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend (2017–2026)
Filings rose from 16 in 2017 to a peak of 35 in 2023, with 2022 at the midpoint value of 15. The years after 2023 show a decline, though the final one or two years are understated by publication lag.
IPC subclass composition
H02M (power conversion) accounts for 325 of 326 records — this is effectively a single-subclass field. H02J (grid/supply systems) and B60L (EV propulsion) are the largest secondary layers, followed by thinner overlaps with G01R, G05F, H03K, H01F and H03B.
Shares are the percentage of the 326 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Bidirectional DC-DC Converter Control System with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about bidirectional dc-dc converter control system and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US10892681B2 — DC-DC converter operable to perform current-mode control output feedback control
A DC-DC converter generates an output voltage from an input voltage through current-mode control output feedback control using a current sense signal commensurate with a sampled value obtained by sampling a coil current in a switching output stage, for example, at the midpoint of the ON period or the OFF period of the switching output stage.Filed by ROHM CO., LTD., published 2021-01-12 — chosen here for its narrow, testable claim to a specific sampling point rather than for citation volume.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6349044B1 | Zero voltage zero current three level DC-DC converter | 190 |
| 2 | US6933706B2 | Method and circuit for optimizing power efficiency in a DC-DC converter | 136 |
| 3 | US5272614A | Microprocessor-controlled DC-DC converter | 126 |
| 4 | US20150365005A1 | Bidirectional converters and flux-balancing control methods thereof | 105 |
| 5 | US4695933A | Multiphase DC-DC series-resonant converter | 95 |
| 6 | US20140117955A1 | Digital controller for switch-mode DC-DC converters and method | 61 |
| 7 | US20050057228A1 | Method and circuit for optimizing power efficiency in a DC-DC converter | 57 |
| 8 | US20110222318A1 | Isolated switching power supply apparatus | 56 |
| 9 | US7898825B2 | Adaptive ramp compensation for current mode-DC-DC converters | 56 |
| 10 | US20080137379A1 | Pulse width modulation for synchronous rectifiers in DC-DC converters | 54 |
Citation counts reward age inside a searched corpus — the top of this table skews toward 1990s–2000s converter fundamentals, not current state of the art.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →Reading the numbers
What the citation table, the IPC split and the filing curve each imply for a team deciding where to invest engineering or legal attention.
The most-cited prior art predates current control schemes
The five most-cited records span 1986 to 2015 and are dominated by foundational topology and zero-voltage-switching patents rather than digital or phase-shift control claims. High citation counts here mark historical influence on later filers, not which claims are commercially live today.
Nearly the whole field is filed under one power-conversion subclass
Secondary IPC tags — H02J for grid interaction, B60L for EV propulsion, G01R for measurement — appear on a minority of records. That leaves control-logic claims framed purely as measurement, software or grid-management inventions comparatively thin, which is one route to a claim that does not collide head-on with the H02M crowd.
Activity has already crested
The climb from 16 filings in 2017 to 35 in 2023 shows sustained interest through the early 2020s, but the years since read as flat or falling, even allowing for publication lag on the most recent filings. This is a field where the core claim space was staked out early rather than one still in a filing land-grab.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to bidirectional dc-dc converter control system, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape
Filing activity concentrates among a small set of established power-semiconductor and automotive suppliers, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants behind them. Recent-year momentum for the visible names is flat: several show zero filings in the latest year, and where a year-over-year figure exists it is negative.
Leading filers have gone quiet in the most recent year
Assignees including Delta Electronics, Inc. and NXP Semiconductors show 0 filings in the latest tracked year with -100% year-over-year change; others such as STMicroelectronics, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Beijing Institute of Technology and Texas Instruments Incorporated also show zero latest-year activity. Given publication lag, some of this is reporting delay rather than a real stop.
The US is the primary battleground, China and Europe tied behind it
United States filings outnumber the next two offices combined only slightly, but China and Europe sit at parity with each other at 47 each. India's 34 and WIPO's 18 show meaningful but secondary international-filing behaviour for this control-method claim set.
Concentration at the top, a long tail beneath it
The assignee ranking is topped by a small group of repeat filers in power semiconductors and automotive electronics, with the bulk of the 326-family set made up of organisations appearing only once or twice. That structure favours licensing or design-around strategies over head-on litigation against a single dominant holder.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| STMicroelectronics | 0 | — |
| Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Delta Electronics, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Beijing Institute of Technology | 0 | — |
| NXP Semiconductors | 0 | -100% |
| Texas Instruments Incorporated | 0 | — |
| Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| DE VRIES IAN DOUGLAS | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy or identifying open claim territory.
Check the H02M crowding directly against a target claim
Because 325 of 326 records sit in H02M, any new filing needs a claim-by-claim comparison against that cluster before assuming novelty, rather than relying on the secondary IPC tags to differentiate.
Explore the H02M cluster in Eureka →Re-run the trend once 2025–2026 fully publish
The apparent post-2023 decline is partly a publication-lag artefact. A re-check in twelve to eighteen months will show whether filing has genuinely fallen or simply hasn't caught up in the record yet.
Track filing trend updates in Eureka →Test the under-claimed sub-areas for a first-filer position
Coil-current midpoint sampling, grid-interaction-linked phase-shift control and flux-balancing multiphase claims all show thin coverage relative to the core cluster — each is a candidate for a narrowly drafted first claim.
Map white space in Eureka →Common questions
The core classification is H02M3/335, which covers DC-DC converters using semiconductor devices with intermediate conversion stages, alongside the broader H02M1/00 for control and regulation details. G05B13 (control systems generally) is used where the control-logic claim is framed independently of the power-conversion hardware. In this dataset, 325 of 326 records carry an H02M tag, making it by far the dominant classification, with H02J, B60L, G01R and G05F appearing as secondary tags on a minority of filings.
Not currently. Filings rose from 16 in 2017 to a peak of 35 in 2023, with the 2022 midpoint at 15, but the years following 2023 show a decline rather than continued growth. Some of that apparent drop is a publication-lag artefact, since patent publication typically trails filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years understate true activity. Even accounting for that, the growth phase looks to have already passed rather than being still underway.
The United States is the leading receiving office with 162 records, well ahead of China and Europe, which are tied at 47 each. India follows with 34, WIPO (PCT) with 18, and the United Kingdom with 7. For a freedom-to-operate review, that pattern means the US search should be treated as primary, with China and Europe as equal-weight secondary checks rather than one clearly outranking the other.
Citation counts inside a fixed patent corpus mechanically favour older documents, because they have had more years for later filers to cite them. The top-cited records here — including a 1986 multiphase resonant converter patent and a 1993 microprocessor-controlled converter patent — are foundational topology work, not current control-scheme leaders. A high citation count signals historical influence on the field, not that the underlying claims are the ones a new filer needs to worry about today.
The clearest gaps sit at the edges of the dominant H02M cluster: control claims framed jointly with measurement (G01R), grid-interaction (H02J) or oscillator-support (H03B) subclasses are comparatively thin relative to the core power-conversion claim space. Specific candidates include coil-current midpoint sampling for current-mode feedback, phase-shift control integrated with grid-interaction logic, and flux-balancing control for multiphase bidirectional topologies. These are narrower niches than the crowded core, which makes them more realistic targets for a first claim than a direct H02M filing.
Research Bidirectional DC-DC Converter Control System in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole bidirectional dc-dc converter control system corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.