Ceramic Matrix Composites Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2019 peak. 170 families in 2019 versus 17 so far in the most recent partial year, with the 2022 midpoint of 143 confirming a flat-to-declining trend rather than a one-year dip.
- Turbine hardware dominates the claim set. F01D-classified filings (996 records) sit second only to core ceramics (C04B, 1,721), showing this is overwhelmingly a hot-section engine technology, not a general materials play.
- A handful of aerospace primes co-file repeatedly. The strongest co-assignee pairs link a single group's own subsidiaries and joint research arrangements, pointing to consolidated, defensively-linked portfolios rather than open collaboration.
Filing growth compares 2021 (130 records) with 2024 (98) — 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 2,149 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families filed against ceramic matrix composite materials and processing, scoped to documents that name fiber coating interphase, chemical vapor infiltration, oxidation resistance, environmental barrier coatings or high-temperature strength alongside CMC or SiC/SiC composite terminology. The IPC gate (C04B35, C23C16, F01D5) keeps the set anchored to ceramics processing and turbine-grade hardware rather than pulling in every composite material mention. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent year’s low count reflects reporting lag as much as any real slowdown.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the middle of 2026, with 2,149 published families in total. Filing offices are led by the United States, followed by Europe and China, with meaningful volume also routed through Canada and the WIPO PCT channel — a filing footprint consistent with a small number of aerospace and defense-adjacent applicants protecting hot-section engine components in the jurisdictions where those engines are built and certified.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,149-family set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A peak in 2019, then a plateau
Annual filings ran at 169 in 2017 and peaked at 170 in 2019. By the 2022 midpoint, volume had settled at 143, and the partial-year 2026 count of 17 is consistent with an ongoing decline once publication lag is accounted for rather than a sudden collapse.
Concentrated in ceramics and turbine hardware
C04B (ceramics, cement and refractories) covers 1,721 of the 2,149 records, with F01D (turbines) close behind at 996 — many families sit in both. B32B laminates and C23C coating deposition form a secondary cluster, while B28B shaping, F23R combustion chambers, F02C gas-turbine plants and B29C plastics shaping each account for a smaller, more specialised slice of the claim space.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,149 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Ceramic Matrix Composites with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ceramic matrix composites and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe documents other filers build around
US10774008B2 — Ceramic matrix composite articles
A ceramic matrix composite article includes a chemical vapor infiltration ceramic matrix composite base portion including ceramic fiber reinforcement material in a ceramic matrix material having between 0% and 5% free silicon. The article further includes a melt infiltration covering portion with a matrix material carrying a greater percentage of free silicon than the CVI base portion.Filed by General Electric; granted 2020-09-15.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6648597B1 | Ceramic matrix composite turbine vane | 290 |
| 2 | US5127783A | Carbon/carbon composite fasteners | 201 |
| 3 | US20030196305A1 | Method for repairing articles of ceramic composites | 126 |
| 4 | US20050158171A1 | Hybrid ceramic matrix composite turbine blades for improved processibility and performance | 121 |
| 5 | US6451416B1 | Hybrid monolithic ceramic and ceramic matrix composite airfoil and method for making the same | 113 |
| 6 | US5350545A | Method of fabrication of composites | 107 |
| 7 | US20050181192A1 | Fiber-reinforced ceramic composite material comprising a matrix with a nanolayered microstructure | 100 |
| 8 | US6627019B2 | Process for making ceramic matrix composite parts with cooling channels | 94 |
| 9 | US4324843A | Continuous length silicon carbide fiber reinforced ceramic composites | 89 |
| 10 | US20020076541A1 | Process for making ceramic matrix composite parts with cooling channels | 82 |
Citation counts favor older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on subsequent filers, not of current commercial relevance.
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 →What the numbers say about where this field is headed
Three patterns stand out once the family counts, IPC split and filing timeline are read together.
Filing has plateaued since 2019
The 2019 peak of 170 families has not been matched since; the 2022 midpoint of 143 shows a gradual decline rather than a cliff. Combined with publication lag, this points to a maturing claim landscape where the foundational CVI and fiber-interphase positions are largely staked out.
This is engine hardware, not bulk ceramics
Nearly half the corpus carries an F01D turbine classification alongside C04B ceramics codes, confirming that the commercial center of gravity is hot-section engine components — blades, vanes and shrouds — rather than ceramic materials science in general.
Filing follows engine manufacturing and certification
The United States and European Patent Office together account for the large majority of receiving-office activity, with China, Canada and the WIPO PCT channel forming a secondary tier. This mirrors where turbine engines are designed, certified and built rather than a broad global filing strategy.
Portfolios cluster around a small set of groups
The strongest co-assignee links connect a single corporate family's own subsidiaries or long-running joint research arrangements rather than open industry consortia, indicating that CMC IP is being consolidated within a handful of aerospace-engine groups.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ceramic matrix composites, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum has shifted
Recent-year filing counts show pronounced pull-back across the largest historical filers, with no assignee posting growth in the latest recorded year.
Even the most active recent filer is retreating
The assignee with the highest latest-year count still filed only 14 families, down 72% year over year — a signal that even active portfolio holders are slowing new filing rather than accelerating it.
Legacy filers have gone quiet
One of the historically largest assignees dropped to a single family in the latest year, a 91% year-over-year decline, consistent with a portfolio in maintenance mode rather than active expansion.
Corporate-family filing dominates the top of the table
The strongest co-assignee relationship links two units of the same corporate group, and the next-strongest pair does the same — a pattern that suggests IP is being managed as a single consolidated portfolio across subsidiaries rather than through arm's-length collaboration.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Raytheon Technologies Corporation | 14 | -72% |
| General Electric Company | 1 | -91% |
| Northwestern Polytechnical University | 1 | -67% |
| Rolls-Royce plc | 0 | — |
| ROLLS ROYCE HIGH TEMPERATURE COMPOSITES INC | 0 | — |
| United Technologies Corporation | 0 | — |
| Rolls-Royce North American Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Safran Ceramics | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this research
The trend and ranking data point to a landscape where the core claim positions are established; the open questions are about defensible variations and adjacent processing steps.
Map the CVI-to-melt-infiltration boundary
The featured patent's split between CVI base and melt-infiltration covering portions suggests process-sequencing claims are still being refined. Checking who else claims hybrid infiltration sequences before filing there can avoid overlap with granted claims.
Explore CMC processing claims in EurekaWatch the assignees pulling back, not just the leaders
Steep year-over-year declines among historically large filers may signal licensing openings or expiring exclusivity rather than lost interest. Tracking which of their families lapse or go abandoned is often more actionable than tracking new filings.
Track assignee momentum in EurekaCheck the under-claimed sub-areas against your own claims
Repair methods, EBC durability and interphase oxidation resistance show thinner density than the core turbine-blade claims. A narrowly drafted claim in one of these branches may clear more easily than a broad composite-material claim.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about ceramic matrix composite patents
The dataset shows filing concentrated among a small group of aerospace-engine manufacturers and their research affiliates, with strong co-assignee links between a single corporate group's own subsidiaries. Rather than one dominant leader, the pattern is a cluster of related entities at the top and a long tail of single-filing universities and smaller suppliers. Recent-year momentum has slowed across nearly all of the largest historical filers, so current portfolio size does not necessarily indicate current filing activity.
Filing peaked at 170 families in 2019 and had fallen to 143 by the 2022 midpoint, with the most recent partial year showing only 17. Part of this reflects publication lag, since filings typically take about 18 months to publish, so the last one to two years will always look artificially thin. But the multi-year decline through the midpoint suggests genuine maturation of the core claim space around fiber interphase coatings and CVI processing, not just a reporting artifact.
Chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) is a processing route for depositing ceramic matrix material around fiber reinforcement inside a composite preform, and it appears directly in the search criteria defining this landscape. It matters commercially because CVI-processed ceramic matrix composites are used in turbine hot-section components, which is reflected in the heavy overlap between C04B ceramics classifications and F01D turbine classifications across the dataset. Filers combining CVI with melt-infiltration steps, as in the featured 2020 General Electric patent, represent one of the more actively claimed process variations.
Relative to the dense core of turbine-blade and fiber-interphase claims, sub-areas such as environmental barrier coating durability under thermal cycling, repair methods for in-service composite articles, and combustion-chamber-specific integration under F23R show thinner filing density. These are not unclaimed, but they carry less accumulated prior art than the core C04B/F01D cluster. A narrowly scoped claim targeting a specific failure mode or repair process in these branches is more likely to clear than a broad composite-material composition claim.
Turbine engine manufacturing is the dominant application area, evidenced by 996 of 2,149 records carrying an F01D turbine classification alongside core ceramics codes. Gas-turbine plants (F02C) and combustion chambers (F23R) appear as smaller but distinct sub-clusters, reinforcing that aerospace and power-generation turbines are the primary commercial driver. Secondary application areas visible in the IPC split include general layered-product manufacturing (B32B) and coating deposition (C23C), which support both turbine and non-turbine uses of the same base materials.
Research Ceramic Matrix Composites in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole ceramic matrix composites 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.