CMOS Image Sensor Durability Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filing has cooled, not grown. activity peaked at 6 families in 2018 and the midpoint year 2022 shows zero filings — this is a flat-to-declining space, not a rising one.
- Packaging, not the pixel, dominates the claim map. H01L (semiconductor devices) appears in 39 of 58 families versus 29 for H04N (imaging/video), meaning durability claims cluster around die and package construction more than signal-chain design.
- The US carries the filing load. 33 of the tracked records were filed at the USPTO against 11 at the EPO and 6 via PCT, so freedom-to-operate work outside the US rests on a much thinner record.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of CMOS image sensor design and explicit environmental-durability claims: temperature stability, dark current durability, radiation tolerance and environmental reliability language paired with image sensor and imager terminology, filtered to the IPC classes covering pixel arrays, video pictorial communication, and semiconductor packaging. It is a narrow cut of a much larger CMOS imaging corpus, built to isolate the durability-specific claim language rather than general sensor design.
58 published families sit inside the window from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, with filings concentrated in the 2017-2020 stretch and no growth since. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years in the trend chart are undercounted and should not be read as a real drop-off in R&D activity.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 58 families: when the claims were filed, and which IPC subclasses they sit in. Both point to a mature, packaging-heavy niche rather than an expanding frontier.
A peak in 2018, then a flat line
Filings ran from 3 in 2017 to a peak of 6 in 2018, then declined toward zero by the 2022 midpoint and stayed near it. This is the profile of a technology area that had its land grab early and has since gone quiet, at least in terms of durability-specific claim language surfaced by this search string.
Packaging classes outweigh imaging classes
H01L (semiconductor devices) leads at 39 records, ahead of H04N (pictorial communication/video) at 29 and G02B (optical elements) at 15. H10P and H10W each appear 13 times and G06F, H05K and B41J each contribute single digits — a tail of printer-integration and digital-processing crossover filings rather than a second core cluster.
Shares are the percentage of the 58 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on CMOS Image Sensor Environmental Durability with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cmos image sensor environmental durability and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this corpus
Image sensor, image sensor arrangement and computed tomography apparatus including the same
An image sensor includes a multitude of photodiodes and analog-to-digital converters disposed in adjacent first and second portions of a semiconductor substrate. The photodiodes exhibit X-ray radiation tolerance. An arrangement of several image sensors in adjacent rows can be used for an X-ray detector in a computed tomography apparatus.Filed by AMS International AG, published 2021-06-10 as US20210175275A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6566745B1 | Image sensor ball grid array package and the fabrication thereof | 432 |
| 2 | US6243131B1 | Method for directly scanning a rectilinear imaging element using a non-linear scan | 199 |
| 3 | US7110139B2 | Printhead controller integrated circuit | 105 |
| 4 | US7602423B2 | Integrated circuit for a digital camera system | 98 |
| 5 | US20040257446A1 | Image processor for digital camera | 91 |
| 6 | US5818052A | Low light level solid state image sensor | 88 |
| 7 | US7141869B2 | Electronic package for image sensor, and the packaging method thereof | 76 |
| 8 | EP1041628A2 | An image sensor ball grid array package and the fabrication thereof | 54 |
| 9 | US20060097335A1 | Electronic package for image sensor, and the packaging method thereof | 46 |
| 10 | US20130075593A1 | Active pixel sensors with variable threshold reset | 45 |
Citation counts inside a bounded search corpus reward older filings and should be read as a signal of influence on the surrounding art, not as a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns worth acting on before drafting new claims in this space.
The claim-space land grab already happened
Filings peaked in 2018 and fell to zero by 2022. New entrants are more likely to be designing around an established base than staking out fresh ground, so prior-art searches should weight 2017-2020 filings heavily.
Durability is claimed as a packaging problem
More families sit in H01L (semiconductor devices) than in H04N (video/pictorial communication), indicating that environmental durability in this corpus is predominantly addressed through die construction, encapsulation and substrate design rather than downstream signal processing.
Thin coverage outside the US record
With 33 of the tracked filings at the USPTO and only 11 at the EPO, teams doing freedom-to-operate work for European or Asian markets are working from a substantially smaller documented record and should not assume US clearance implies clearance elsewhere.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cmos image sensor environmental durability, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the durability claims
Assignee activity in this corpus is old rather than dormant-and-returning: the entities with the most co-filed pairs and citation weight show zero filings in the latest tracked year, consistent with a space whose core claims were staked out years ago.
Filing was collaborative, then stopped
The strongest co-assignee links center on one organisation paired repeatedly with individual named inventors, each pairing appearing three times. All of the assignees with visible momentum in earlier years show zero filings in the most recent tracked year.
No current filer is actively expanding
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the most cited and most collaborative filers, recorded zero filings in the latest year. This is a landscape to monitor for a re-entry rather than one to chase for near-term competitive moves.
Packaging patents carry the influence
The most-cited record in the corpus concerns image sensor ball grid array packaging rather than pixel or radiation-tolerance circuitry, reinforcing that durability claim value in this area has historically sat in mechanical and package-level construction.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd | 0 | — |
| AMS International AG | 0 | — |
| 阿帕托佩克股份有限公司 | 0 | — |
| Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. | 0 | — |
| Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) | 0 | — |
| InVisage Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
| SUNDAHL ROBERT C | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape data points to specific next steps depending on whether you are clearing a design or scouting for open claim territory.
Run a freedom-to-operate check outside the US
With 33 of 58 tracked filings at the USPTO, a design cleared against US prior art has not been checked against the thinner EPO and PCT record. Pull the EPO and WIPO subsets specifically before finalising claims intended for those markets.
Check FTO in EurekaRe-examine the packaging-heavy citation leaders
The highest-cited records in this corpus concern package and die-level construction rather than pixel-array or radiation-tolerance circuitry. Any new filing touching ball grid array packaging or substrate bonding should be checked against these first.
Review cited art in EurekaWatch for re-entry rather than growth
Every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, so the near-term signal to watch is any single organisation resuming activity, not aggregate volume growth.
Track assignees in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
Based on this corpus, no — filings peaked at 6 in 2018 and had fallen to zero by the 2022 midpoint, with no recovery through the most recent complete years. That said, publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the very last year or two in any such trend is always undercounted and should be treated as provisional rather than a confirmed drop. The practical read is that the core claim space was staked out in the late 2010s and has not seen a documented resurgence since.
H01L (semiconductor devices) leads with 39 of the 58 tracked records, ahead of H04N (pictorial communication and video) at 29 and G02B (optical elements) at 15. This means most durability claims are framed around die construction, packaging and substrate design rather than the imaging pipeline itself. A prior-art search focused only on sensor-signal-chain classes would miss the majority of relevant filings.
The existing record is heavily weighted toward the United States, with 33 of 58 filings at the USPTO compared with 11 at the EPO, 6 via PCT, and single digits elsewhere. That imbalance means US clearance searches rest on a much deeper documented base than European or Asian equivalents, so a design cleared for the US market has not necessarily been checked against comparable European or Asian prior art. Teams targeting global coverage should budget for a separate EPO and national-phase search rather than assuming the US picture generalises.
The corpus shows co-filing activity clustered around a small number of organisations paired repeatedly with individual named inventors, with the strongest pairs each appearing three times across 9 total co-assignee pairs. Every one of these leading assignees, however, shows zero filings in the most recent tracked year, which points to consolidation of the claim base rather than ongoing competitive filing. New entrants should treat these organisations as holders of foundational art to search against, not as active competitors to out-file.
This filing, from AMS International AG and published in 2021, claims an image sensor arrangement using photodiodes with X-ray radiation tolerance arranged across adjacent substrate portions, intended for computed tomography detector arrays. Anyone designing photodiode arrays for X-ray or similarly harsh radiation environments, particularly with a multi-row detector arrangement, should review its specific claim scope for overlap. It is one filing within a corpus where radiation-tolerance language is comparatively rare, so it carries more relative weight in that narrow sub-area than a typical single record would in the denser packaging classes.
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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.