Compound Semiconductor Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Compound semiconductor patents: mapping transistor, substrate and mask-pattern claims
34.2% sits with five filers. Of the 15,398 records in scope, the top five assignees combined account for 5,269 records — dense concentration at the top of an otherwise long tail. Filings rose from 728 in 2017 to a peak of 905 in 2022. The last complete-year comparison available shows 709 filings in 2021 falling to 547 in 2024 — a 23% decline over that span. Counts for 2025 and 2026 read lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a real drop in activity.
- 1TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO LTD14.8%
- 2INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION7.5%
- 3LG INNOTEK CO LTD4.4%
- 4SUZHOU LEKIN SEMICON CO LTD4.0%
- 5GLOBALFOUNDRIES US INC3.6%
See the full compound semiconductors patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on compound semiconductor patents
Who are the leading patent holders in compound semiconductors?
The assignee ranking behind this dataset covers 100 companies, with the leading filer holding 2,284 records, well ahead of fifth place at 547 and tenth place at 283. The top five combined account for 34.2% of all 15,398 records in scope, so concentration is heavy at the very top even though the ranking runs into a long tail of smaller filers. Foundries and large integrated device manufacturers dominate the top of that list, with university and research filers appearing further down.
Is compound semiconductor patent filing still growing?
Filing volume peaked at 905 in 2022 and, on the last fully comparable years, fell from 709 filings in 2021 to 547 in 2024 — a 23% decline. That is a genuine pull-back rather than a data artefact, since both years are old enough to be fully published. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, not a further collapse in activity.
What patent classes cover compound semiconductor devices?
H01L (semiconductor devices) is the dominant classification, appearing on 83.7% of the 15,398 records in scope. H10D, H10P and H10W split out more specific device, packaging and wafer-level claims, while H01S covers laser and stimulated-emission devices at 5.7% and G02B covers optical elements at 3.4%. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these shares add up to well over 100% and should not be read as a partition of the field.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Compound Semiconductors Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.