Chip Resistors and Precision Resistors Patents: Top Filers & Trends 2026
- Filing has flattened since 2021. the peak year of 19 records has given way to a midpoint of 13 in 2022, with no rebound visible in the trend.
- The top 5 hold under a third. 171 of 523 records (32.7%) sit with the leading five assignees — concentrated, but not a closed field.
- Resistor-specific claims dominate. H01C covers 99.4% of records, while semiconductor-adjacent classes like H01L and H10N appear in under a fifth, marking where cross-domain claims are thinner.
What This Landscape Covers
Chip resistors and precision resistors sit at the intersection of materials science and circuit design: temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), long-term stability, pulse withstand, laser trimming and sulfur resistance are the recurring claim themes across the 523 records in scope. The search spans H01C resistor classes alongside semiconductor and coating classifications, capturing both discrete component claims and the thin-film deposition methods used to make them.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent year's count understates actual filing activity and should not be read as a decline on its own.
Filing Trend and Technology Composition
Two views of the same 523 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A Peak in 2021, No Rebound Since
Filings rose from 14 in 2017 to a peak of 19 in 2021, then eased to 13 by the 2022 midpoint. The pattern reads as flat-to-declining rather than a technology in early growth, though the final one or two years are undercounted due to publication lag.
Resistor Claims Dominate; Semiconductor Overlap Is Thin
H01C accounts for 99.4% of the 523 records, confirming this is a resistor-first dataset by construction. Beyond that, H01L (17.0%) and H10N (9.0%) mark where resistor claims intersect semiconductor device structures, while coating class C23C (7.1%) and alloy class C22C (5.0%) point to materials-side filing that is present but not heavily contested.
Shares are the percentage of the 523 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Chip Resistors and Precision Resistors with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about chip resistors and precision resistors and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe Records Setting the Reference Points
US9963777B2 — Methods of Forming a Thin Film Resistor
The patent describes sputtering a target material to form a first thin film resistor, then adjusting a deposition parameter — substrate bias or substrate temperature — to modulate a property, including TCR, of a subsequently formed second thin film resistor. Target materials named include Cr alloy, Ni alloy, SiCr and NiCr.Filed by Analog Devices, published 2018-05-08.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5849623A | Method of forming thin film resistors on organic surfaces | 192 |
| 2 | US5675310A | Thin film resistors on organic surfaces | 171 |
| 3 | US5287083A | Bulk metal chip resistor | 156 |
| 4 | JP2001076912A | Laser trimming method in chip resistor | 105 |
| 5 | US6097276A | Electric resistor having positive and negative TCR portions | 101 |
| 6 | US5680092A | Chip resistor and method for producing the same | 70 |
| 7 | US5907274A | Chip resistor | 62 |
| 8 | US5468672A | Thin film resistor and method of fabrication | 60 |
| 9 | US6437681B1 | Structure and fabrication process for an improved high temperature sensor | 57 |
| 10 | US4760369A | Thin film resistor and method | 54 |
Citation counts favour older records in any searched corpus — treat this table as a map of influence, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the Numbers Mean for Filing Strategy
Three read-throughs from the concentration, class and geography data worth acting on before drafting new claims.
Leadership Is Real but Not Exclusionary
The leading assignee alone accounts for 59 records, and the top five combine for 171 of 523 (32.7%). That leaves two-thirds of the field held by a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, so a new entrant is not filing into a closed space.
Momentum Has Cooled Since the 2021 Peak
Annual filings rose steadily from 14 in 2017 to 19 in 2021, then declined toward 13 by 2022. Combined with a near-zero final year, the trend looks flat to declining rather than accelerating — a signal to check whether claim space is saturating or activity is simply shifting elsewhere.
Japan and the US Anchor Filing Activity
Japan leads receiving offices with 212 records, followed by the United States at 183. The UK, EPO, Taiwan and China each sit well behind, at 30, 26, 25 and 20 records respectively, suggesting enforcement and freedom-to-operate checks should prioritise the two lead jurisdictions first.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to chip resistors and precision resistors, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee Landscape and Filing Momentum
The ranking covers 100 companies across the full 523-record dataset — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the entire ranked field the data endpoint returns.
One Filer Well Ahead of the Rest
The top-ranked assignee holds 59 records, more than triple the fifth-place count of 16. That gap narrows quickly further down the ranking, where tenth place sits at 11 records.
A Shallow Drop-Off After the Leader
Fifth place holds 16 records and tenth place holds 11 — a modest decline that indicates a genuine mid-field of active filers rather than a sharp cliff after the top few names.
Co-Filing Is Rare and Concentrated
Only four co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest pairing recorded at five joint records. Co-filing here looks like a research-institute-to-manufacturer relationship rather than a broad industry pattern.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Rohm Co., Ltd. | 1 | — |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | 0 | — |
| Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| KOA Corporation | 0 | — |
| Texas Instruments Incorporated | 0 | — |
| Microchip Technology Incorporated | 0 | -100% |
| Denso Corporation | 0 | — |
| NEC Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to Take This Analysis
The dataset points to specific next checks before committing to a filing or freedom-to-operate position.
Run a Freedom-to-Operate Check on TCR Claims
With H01C covering 99.4% of records, any new TCR or trimming claim needs a targeted search against the leading assignees' portfolios before drafting.
Explore in EurekaTrack the Under-Claimed Branches
Sulfur resistance and pulse withstand structures show thinner filing density than core TCR claims — worth a deeper prior-art pull before assuming the space is open.
Explore in EurekaWatch Japan and US Filing Activity
With 212 and 183 records respectively, these two receiving offices carry most of the enforcement risk and should anchor any monitoring watchlist.
Explore in EurekaCommon Questions About Chip Resistor Patents
The dataset's leading assignee holds 59 of the 523 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 16. The top five assignees combined account for 171 records, or 32.7% of the field, which means leadership is concentrated but far from exclusive. Beyond the top ten (44.4% combined), the ranking spreads across 100 companies, including many with only a handful of filings each, so smaller players and new entrants remain active.
Filing activity peaked in 2021 at 19 records after rising from 14 in 2017, then eased toward 13 by the 2022 midpoint, with the trend reading flat to declining since. The most recent year shows only 1 record, but that figure is not a reliable signal of a real drop-off because publication typically lags actual filing by roughly 18 months. Anyone using this trend for planning should treat the last one to two years as undercounted rather than as evidence of a slowdown.
Core claims center on temperature coefficient of resistance, long-term stability, pulse withstand, laser trimming methods and sulfur resistance, all captured under the H01C resistor classification, which covers 99.4% of records. A meaningful minority of records also touch semiconductor device classes (H01L at 17.0%, H10N at 9.0%), reflecting thin-film resistor structures built on semiconductor substrates. Coating and alloy classes (C23C, C22C) appear in a smaller share, pointing to materials-side innovation around resistive films and metal alloys.
Japan is the leading receiving office with 212 records, followed by the United States at 183. The United Kingdom, European Patent Office, Taiwan and China trail well behind, with 30, 26, 25 and 20 records respectively. This distribution suggests that freedom-to-operate and enforcement risk for this technology concentrates heavily in Japan and the US, with the other jurisdictions carrying comparatively lighter documented activity.
US9963777B2, assigned to Analog Devices and published in 2018, claims a method of sputtering a target material to form a first thin film resistor and then adjusting a deposition parameter — substrate bias or substrate temperature — to modulate a property such as TCR in a subsequently formed second thin film resistor. It names specific target materials including Cr alloy, Ni alloy, SiCr and NiCr. It does not block all thin-film resistor fabrication; it specifically covers the two-step sputtering-with-parameter-adjustment method for modulating TCR between sequentially formed films, so alternative deposition sequences or different modulation mechanisms may sit outside its claims, subject to a full claim-by-claim review.
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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.