CVD Process Patents: Who Leads, Where Filings Are Cooling 2026
- Filing has cooled, not grown. Filings ran 323 in 2017, peaked at 413 in 2018, then sat flat through the 2022 midpoint (337) before tapering off.
- Coating and semiconductor IPC codes dominate. C23C (11,627 records) and H01L (8,001) between them cover most of the corpus; crystal growth and memory-device manufacture are far thinner branches.
- The largest historical filers have gone quiet. Several of the assignees with the deepest filing history show 0 filings in the latest year, with year-on-year drops of -95% to -100% among the few still active.
Filing growth compares 2021 (379 records) with 2024 (287) — 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 15,542 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this dataset covers
This landscape draws on 15,542 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, pulled from filings that combine chemical vapor deposition process language — precursor chemistry, step coverage, deposition rate, film uniformity, chamber cleaning — with IPC coverage across coating deposition (C23C16), semiconductor device manufacture (H01L21) and crystal growth (C30B25). It spans the process engineering layer of CVD rather than the tool hardware layer alone, which is why organo-metallic precursor compounds (C07F) and electron-tube deposition (H01J) both show up as secondary clusters.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend line understate real filing activity; treat the last one to two years as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how that volume splits across IPC subclasses.
A flat-to-declining filing curve
Filings rose from 323 in 2017 to a peak of 413 in 2018, then held roughly level through the 337 recorded at the 2022 midpoint before falling toward 27 in the most recent (partial) year. Read the tail end cautiously given publication lag, but the multi-year plateau before it is real signal: this is a maturing claim space, not one still in a growth phase.
Coating deposition and device manufacture carry the weight
C23C (coating and surface deposition) accounts for 11,627 of the records and H01L (semiconductor devices) for 8,001, with heavy overlap between the two given how CVD process claims are drafted. Crystal growth (C30B, 1,486), organo-metallic precursor chemistry (C07F, 1,217) and memory-device manufacture (H10B, 644) are considerably thinner, which is where more room to maneuver tends to sit.
Shares are the percentage of the 15,542 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Chemical Vapor Deposition Processes with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about chemical vapor deposition processes and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this corpus
Technique for high efficiency metalorganic chemical vapor deposition
A technique for more efficiently forming conductive elements, such as conductive layers and electrodes, using chemical vapor deposition. A conductive precursor gas, such as a platinum precursor gas, having organic compounds to improve step coverage is introduced into a chemical vapor deposition chamber. A reactant is also introduced into the chamber that reacts with residue organic compounds on the conductive element so as to remove the organic compounds from the nucleating sites to thereby permit more efficient subsequent chemical vapor deposition of conductive elements.Filed by Micron Technology; illustrates how early-2000s process claims tied precursor chemistry directly to step-coverage outcomes.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20070172591A1 | METHOD OF FABRICATING ZnO FILM AND THIN FILM TRANSISTOR ADOPTING THE ZnO FILM | 4,296 |
| 2 | US7968146B2 | Hybrid layers for use in coatings on electronic devices or other articles | 2,406 |
| 3 | US5916365A | Sequential chemical vapor deposition | 1,577 |
| 4 | US5278100A | Chemical vapor deposition technique for depositing titanium silicide on semiconductor wafers | 1,334 |
| 5 | US5000113A | Thermal CVD/PECVD reactor and use for thermal chemical vapor deposition of silicon dioxide and in-situ multi-… | 1,155 |
| 6 | US20030143328A1 | Apparatus and method for plasma assisted deposition | 1,037 |
| 7 | US20030019428A1 | Chemical vapor deposition chamber | 962 |
| 8 | US5846332A | Thermally floating pedestal collar in a chemical vapor deposition chamber | 878 |
| 9 | US6066204A | High pressure MOCVD reactor system | 852 |
| 10 | US20030049372A1 | High rate deposition at low pressures in a small batch reactor | 848 |
Citation counts are drawn from the searched corpus itself; older filings accumulate more citations simply by being older, so treat this as a map of influence rather than of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the citation and filing data actually say
Three read-throughs on the numbers above, aimed at where they change a filing or freedom-to-operate decision.
ZnO film patent anchors the field's oldest prior art
US20070172591A1, on ZnO film and thin-film-transistor fabrication, carries by far the heaviest citation count in the set. That volume reflects age and centrality to downstream thin-film transistor work more than it reflects current commercial relevance.
The plateau after 2018 is the real story
A single peak year tells you little; the fact that filings held near 300-plus through the 2022 midpoint before falling off says the core claim territory filled up and applicants moved on to adjacent problems.
Coating deposition is the most crowded subclass
With three-quarters of the corpus touching C23C, generic film-deposition process claims are heavily prior-arted. Differentiated filings increasingly need to anchor in a specific precursor chemistry or a named film-uniformity mechanism rather than the deposition step alone.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to chemical vapor deposition processes, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is still filing, and who has stopped
Recent-year momentum separates two groups cleanly: a handful of assignees with deep historical filing counts that have gone to zero in the latest year, and a much smaller set still filing at all.
Even the still-active filer is pulling back
Applied Materials shows 1 filing in the latest year against a -95% year-on-year drop, making it the only major historical filer with any recorded activity in the most recent period.
Micron, Air Products, IBM, ATMI and TEL have all gone quiet
Micron Technology, Air Products and Chemicals, IBM, Advanced Technology Materials and Tokyo Electron all show zero filings in the latest year, with IBM and Tokyo Electron each down -100% year-on-year from prior activity.
IBM and Tokyo Electron form the densest co-filing link
The IBM plus Tokyo Electron pairing is the strongest of the 10 identified co-assignee relationships, followed by Tokyo Electron with its Arizona affiliate and Air Products with Tokyo Electron — all clustered around chamber and process-tool development.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 1 | -95% |
| Micron Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | -100% |
| Advanced Technology Materials, Inc. (ATMI) | 0 | — |
| Tokyo Electron Limited | 0 | -100% |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | 0 | -100% |
| Lam Research Corporation | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this
The dataset points to a field with occupied core claim territory and a shrinking pool of active filers — the practical questions from here are about timing and positioning.
Check freedom-to-operate against the dense clusters
Before drafting in C23C or H01L, map any new precursor or step-coverage claim against the existing density there rather than assuming open space.
Explore CVD prior art in EurekaWatch for a re-entry, not just an exit
Zero recent filings from historically active assignees can precede a consolidated re-entry with broader claims; monitor rather than assume the space is abandoned.
Track assignee activity in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches directly
Chamber-cleaning chemistries and crystal-growth CVD for wide-bandgap substrates show thinner filing histories than the core — worth a targeted search before committing claim language.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on CVD process patents
Historical filing leaders in this dataset include Applied Materials, Micron Technology, Air Products and Chemicals, IBM, Advanced Technology Materials, and Tokyo Electron, based on total filing volume across the corpus. However, recent-year momentum tells a different story: most of these assignees show zero filings in the latest year, and Applied Materials, the one still filing, is down 95% year-on-year. A ranking by cumulative volume and a ranking by current activity give different answers here, so check both before assuming who is actually competing today.
No, not by filing volume. Filings rose from 323 in 2017 to a peak of 413 in 2018, then held roughly flat around 337 at the 2022 midpoint before declining toward the most recent year. That pattern is consistent with a field where the core process claims — precursor chemistry, step coverage, deposition rate — have already been heavily filed, and activity is shifting elsewhere rather than expanding. The most recent one to two years should be read cautiously since publication lag understates true filing activity.
C23C (coating and surface deposition) and H01L (semiconductor devices) dominate, covering 11,627 and 8,001 records respectively out of 15,542 total, with substantial overlap since most CVD process claims describe both a coating step and a semiconductor application. Crystal growth (C30B), organo-metallic precursor chemistry (C07F), and memory-device manufacture (H10B) are meaningfully thinner branches. A filing strategy aimed at open claim space should look at these thinner classes rather than the two dominant ones.
The thinner IPC branches relative to the dominant C23C and H01L clusters point to it: crystal-growth CVD for wide-bandgap substrates, in-situ chamber-cleaning plasma chemistries, and organo-metallic precursor stability additives all carry noticeably less filing density in this corpus. These are not guaranteed-open areas, but they carry less prior art per the composition data than the core process claims do. Any drafting there should still run a targeted prior-art check against the specific precursor or chemistry named, not just the IPC class.
The patent, assigned to Micron Technology, covers a technique for forming conductive elements — layers and electrodes — using a conductive precursor gas such as a platinum precursor combined with organic compounds to improve step coverage, followed by a reactant step that strips residual organic compounds from nucleating sites. It is a process patent tying precursor chemistry directly to a step-coverage improvement and a chamber-cleaning-style reactant step. Anyone working on metalorganic CVD for conductive layer formation with a similar precursor-plus-reactant sequence should review its claims closely before finalizing a process design.
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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.