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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/cleanroom-airflow-and-filtration-design-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Cleanroom Airflow & FiltrationCleanroom airflow and filtration design patents: who holds the claims and where they thin out
- 40.0% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 200 of the 500 records in scope — filing here is not evenly spread.
- Filing has cooled from its peak. 2021 filings fell to 2024 filings by -72%, down from a 2018 peak of 43 records in a single year.
- Filtration and ventilation classes trail the medical classes. F24F ventilation (13.6%) and B01D separation/filtration (10.6%) sit well behind A61M and A61F, suggesting the core airflow engineering claims are less crowded than the device claims layered on top.
500
Published Records
40%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-72%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (32 records) with 2024 (9) — 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 500 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset gathers 500 published records matching cleanroom airflow and filtration terms — fan filter units, unidirectional flow, cleanliness class, air change rate, recovery time, filter leak testing, fan power consumption and pressure cascade — filed between 2015 and mid-2026. The search string pairs airflow-hardware terms with the performance and validation metrics that cleanroom operators actually specify, so the corpus mixes pure ventilation engineering with the medical and semiconductor applications that consume it.
Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity; 2024 is the last year that can be read as complete.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cleanroom Airflow and Filtration Design 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 trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 500 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how the underlying IPC classes distribute across the corpus.
A 2018 peak followed by a sustained pullback
Filings ran from 17 records in 2017 to a peak of 43 in 2018, then eased across the following years; the 2021-to-2024 span alone shows a -72% change, from 32 records down to 9. The 2025-2026 tail is still filling in and should not be read as a continued decline.
Medical device classes dominate, ventilation and filtration sit underneath
A61M (devices for body fluids, 27.2% of the 500 records) and A61F (implants and prostheses, 25.2%) lead the composition, ahead of H01L semiconductor devices (14.4%) and F24F air conditioning and ventilation (13.6%). B01D separation processes, the class closest to filtration hardware itself, sits at 10.6% — a reminder that much of this corpus is built around applications of cleanroom air control rather than the air-handling engineering alone.
Shares are the percentage of the 500 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 Cleanroom Airflow and Filtration Design covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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A representative filing and the most-cited records
Representative filing
Airflow feedback control method and apparatus for fan filter unit (US20040112212A1)
INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
An airflow feedback control method and apparatus for fan filter unit (FFU), designed for use with FFUs widely deployed in semiconductor fabrication factories for dust-clearing purposes, controls the unit to generate a constant, preset amount of airflow. The method uses a bell inlet as an airflow measuring nozzle and airflow itself as the feedback parameter, rather than motor speed as used in prior art, allowing the FFU to hold a fixed airflow output.Filed by Industrial Technology Research Institute, published 2004-06-17 — predates most of the corpus and anchors the feedback-control approach to FFU airflow regulation.
Most-cited records in this corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20060025857A1 | Implantable prosthetic valve | 1,289 |
| 2 | WO2005102015A2 | Implantable prosthetic valve | 654 |
| 3 | US20110245911A1 | Transcatheter Valve with Torsion Spring Fixation and Related Systems and Methods | 429 |
| 4 | US20040024345A1 | Glaucoma implant with valveless flow bias | 369 |
| 5 | US7699823B2 | Wound dressing with vacuum reservoir | 350 |
| 6 | US20050119688A1 | Method and assembly for distal embolic protection | 329 |
| 7 | US20070185463A1 | Surgical wound dressing | 314 |
| 8 | US8652204B2 | Transcatheter valve with torsion spring fixation and related systems and methods | 293 |
| 9 | US20070270944A1 | Implantable Valve Prosthesis | 287 |
| 10 | WO2005102015A3 | Implantable prosthetic valve | 267 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older records such as the two implantable prosthetic valve filings lead the table by influence rather than by current filing relevance.
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 Cleanroom Airflow and Filtration Design 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
Read together, the concentration figures, the filing trend and the class composition point to a field where a small group of assignees hold the core airflow claims while application-specific classes stay more open.
Concentration
40.0% / 500
top 5 share of all records
The top of the field is dense, the tail is long
Five assignees hold 40.0% of the 500 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 54.8%. That leaves roughly 45% of filings spread across 90 further ranked assignees, most contributing a handful of records each — a classic long-tail structure once past the leaders.
Assignee ranking, 100 companies
Momentum
-72%
2021 → 2024 filings
Activity has pulled back from its 2018 high
Filings peaked at 43 records in 2018 and have declined since; the 2021-to-2024 window alone shows a -72% drop, from 32 to 9 records. Treat 2025-2026 figures as incomplete rather than as evidence the pullback is continuing.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Technology mix
13.6% / 10.6%
F24F / B01D share of records
Ventilation and filtration engineering trail the applications built on them
F24F (air conditioning and ventilation) and B01D (separation processes including filtration) each sit well below A61M and A61F, the medical device classes. That gap suggests airflow-hardware claims proper are less saturated than the device applications layered over them.
IPC composition, 500 records
Collaboration
10 pairs
co-assignee pairs identified
Co-filing is rare and concentrated where it exists
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, and the strongest single pairing links an academic hospital with its associated seed-investment vehicle rather than two operating companies — collaborative filing is the exception here, not the norm.
Co-assignee pairs, corpus-wide
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cleanroom airflow and filtration design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cleanroom Airflow and Filtration Design 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 holds the ranked positions, and where the gate sits
The assignee ranking spans 100 companies drawn from the full 500-record corpus. The leader holds 61 records, fifth place holds 21, and tenth place holds 10 — a steep drop from first to fifth that flattens out further down the table.
Leader
61 records
leading assignee
One assignee well ahead of the pack
The top-ranked assignee holds 61 of the 500 records, more than double the fifth-place holder's 21 — a gap that marks out sustained, deliberate filing rather than incidental patenting.
Assignee ranking
Mid-table
21 → 10 records
fifth to tenth place
The drop-off flattens quickly
Between fifth place (21 records) and tenth place (10 records) the gap narrows considerably compared with the drop from first to fifth, indicating a cluster of moderately active filers rather than a single clear runner-up.
Assignee ranking
Recent activity
0 in latest year
for several ranked leaders
Several ranked leaders show no recent-year filings
Multiple assignees in the upper part of the ranking, including hospital-system and device-company filers, show zero filings in the latest tracked year — consistent with the broader pullback from the 2018 peak rather than exit by any single filer.
Recent-year momentum
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Corteva, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Covidien LP | 0 | — |
| Case Western Reserve University | 0 | — |
| Smith & Nephew, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Medtronic 3F Therapeutics, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Emulate, Inc. | 0 | — |
| AAF McQuay Inc. (d/b/a AAF International) | 0 | — |
| Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cleanroom Airflow and Filtration Design 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 analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking, or identifying open claim space.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 61 of 500 records, a targeted review of that portfolio's claim scope is a faster first step than a full-field search before committing to a filing strategy.
Explore assignee portfolios in Eureka →Watch the ventilation and filtration classes for new entrants
F24F and B01D carry lower record shares than the medical device classes in this corpus, which is where new claim activity would be easiest to spot early.
Track IPC class activity in Eureka →Revisit the 2025-2026 trend once publication catches up
The most recent two years understate real filing activity because of publication lag; re-running this view in a future period will sharpen the read on whether the pullback since 2018 continues.
Set up a filing trend alert in Eureka →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cleanroom Airflow and Filtration Design 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 this landscape
The assignee ranking for this corpus covers 100 companies drawn from 500 records, and it is concentrated at the top: the leading assignee holds 61 records on its own, and the top five together account for 200 records, or 40.0% of the full 500-record set. Past fifth place the gap narrows quickly, with tenth place holding 10 records, which points to a long tail of moderate and single-filing entrants beneath a small group of sustained filers. Anyone assessing competitive position should look at the leader's specific claim scope rather than assume the field is evenly contested.
No — filing peaked in 2018 at 43 records and has since pulled back, with the 2021-to-2024 span alone showing a -72% change from 32 records down to 9. That said, the 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent years should not be read as proof the decline is continuing at the same rate. A fair read is that activity has cooled from a clear peak, not that the field is dormant.
US20040112212A1, filed by Industrial Technology Research Institute, describes a feedback control method for fan filter units that uses a bell inlet as an airflow measuring nozzle and airflow itself, rather than motor speed, as the control feedback parameter. It is one of the earlier filings in this space and defines a specific control architecture rather than fan filter units generally, so it constrains designs that use airflow-based feedback through a bell-inlet-style nozzle rather than every FFU control approach. A design using motor-speed feedback or a different sensing method would sit outside its specific claim language, though a full claim-by-claim comparison is needed before relying on that distinction.
Within this corpus, F24F (air conditioning and ventilation, 13.6% of the 500 records) and B01D (separation processes including filtration, 10.6%) carry noticeably lower record shares than the A61M and A61F medical device classes that dominate the dataset. That gap suggests specific mechanisms — fan filter unit power-consumption control, pressure-cascade validation, filter leak-test instrumentation, and air-change-rate or recovery-time measurement methods — are less densely claimed than the medical applications built around cleanroom-grade airflow. This is a starting point for scoping a freedom-to-operate search, not a guarantee that a given claim is unclaimed.
The most-cited records in this dataset, including two implantable prosthetic valve filings with 1,289 and 654 citations respectively, are older records that have simply had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus. Citation count is a signal of accumulated influence, not of current technical importance or of how active a given claim area is today. A newer filing addressing the same problem may be more relevant to a current freedom-to-operate question even with a far lower citation count.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cleanroom Airflow and Filtration Design 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.