Microwave Industrial Heating Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (6) — 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 76 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 76 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026 that describe microwave-based industrial heating: methods and systems for applying microwave energy to drying, curing, chemical processing and materials treatment at industrial scale, alongside adjacent electric process-heat approaches. The scope also picks up records that combine microwave, industrial and heating terminology with energy-efficiency or waste-heat language, so the set includes both dedicated microwave-heating equipment and broader process-heat systems that use microwave as one component. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will read lower than the true filing rate once those applications finish publishing.
Coverage runs through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off. Receiving-office activity is spread across China, India, the EPO, the United States, Australia and Singapore, indicating the technology is being filed and prosecuted across several jurisdictions rather than concentrated in one region.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 76-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the records cluster into.
Filing trend
Annual filings rose from 2 records in 2017 to a peak of 10 in 2018, then settled into a lower but rising pattern; the evidence shows growth from 2 records in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a +200% increase over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures (2 records as of the cut-off) are undercounts pending publication.
Technology composition
C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds) and the two heating-focused classes, H01L and H05B, each appear in around 13-15% of the 76 records, with F26B drying, B01J catalysis, B29C plastics shaping and F28F heat-exchanger detail each present in roughly 9-12%. Because records carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 76 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Hybrid drying of industrial goods
Describes a method for energy-efficient hybrid drying of industrial goods such as raw materials: a wet product is preconditioned with successive air-circulation exposures, then dried by simultaneous exposure to microwave energy alongside further air circulation, aiming to improve thermal and electrical efficiency over single-mode drying systems.Filed by MEAM BV, published 2025-09-18 — illustrates the current generation of hybrid microwave-plus-air drying claims.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2018148732A2 | Methods and systems for an automated utility marketplace platform | 117 |
| 2 | US5494598A | Heat exchange medium and articles for use thereof | 50 |
| 3 | US20180069255A1 | Dehydrogenation reaction system for liquid hydrogen source material | 20 |
| 4 | CN105338677A | 管道式工业微波加热装置 | 18 |
| 5 | US11072094B2 | Method and system for wavelength specific thermal irradiation and treatment | 16 |
| 6 | US20150362185A1 | System and Process for Combusting Cleaned Coal and Beneficiated Organic-Carbon-Containng Feedstock | 14 |
| 7 | CA2676737A1 | Many new evolutions of fusion energy and related items to make it and other by products and/or processes | 14 |
| 8 | US20150362184A1 | System and Process for Combusting Coal and Beneficiated Organic-Carbon-Containing Feedstock | 13 |
| 9 | CN105813252A | 采用螺旋天线径向辐射功率的工业用微波加热装置 | 9 |
| 10 | US20100143619A1 | Thermal Conduction Principle And Device For Intercrossed Structure Having Different Thermal Characteristics | 8 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older records; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-outs from the dataset that matter more for freedom-to-operate and filing decisions than the raw counts alone.
Leadership is real but not locked down
The top 5 assignees hold 38.2% of the 76 records in scope and the top 10 hold 55.3%. That leaves close to half the field split across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants, so a newcomer is not necessarily filing into a field owned by one or two incumbents.
Recent growth is real, not an artefact of the peak year
Filings grew from 2 records in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a +200% increase. That is a meaningfully more recent signal than the 2018 peak of 10 records, which sits earlier in the window and may reflect a different filing wave.
Claims span materials chemistry as much as heating hardware
C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds) is the single largest IPC subclass at 14.5% of records, ahead of the two heating-specific classes H01L and H05B at 13.2% each. That spread signals the field is not just about microwave equipment design — a meaningful share of claims sit in the materials and chemical-process side of the process.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electric process heat: microwave industrial heating patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, sourcing partners, or finding open claim space.
Map the white space in under-claimed branches
F28F heat-exchanger detail and G06Q process-data classes sit at the lower end of the composition chart relative to drying and heating circuits, suggesting less-crowded claim territory around thermal-management and monitoring integration.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the long tail of single-filing entrants
With just over half of records held by the top 10 assignees, the remaining share is spread thin. Watching new entrants here early can flag competitive shifts before they show up in citation counts.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaFrequently asked questions
This dataset identifies 76 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026 that match microwave industrial heating and related electric process-heat search criteria. That count reflects the specific search string and time window used, not every patent ever filed globally in this space. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true number of filings in 2025 and 2026 is understated in any current count.
The ranked list covers 57 companies, with the leading assignee holding 7 records and the fifth-ranked company holding 4. The top 5 assignees combined account for 38.2% of the 76 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 55.3%, which means over 40% of filings sit outside the ten most active companies. That leaves meaningful room for smaller or newer entrants rather than a field locked up by one or two dominant players.
Yes, based on the most recent complete years: filings rose from 2 records in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a +200% increase. An earlier peak of 10 records occurred in 2018, so growth has not been a straight line, but the 2021-2024 span shows renewed acceleration. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete due to normal publication lag and should not yet be read as a slowdown.
The records cluster across several IPC subclasses rather than one narrow category: C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds) at 14.5% of the 76 records, H01L (semiconductor devices) and H05B (electric heating and lighting circuits) each at 13.2%, and F26B (drying) at 11.8%. Chemical processing, plastics shaping and heat-exchanger detail each account for roughly 9% of records. This spread indicates the technology is applied across materials drying, direct electric heating, chip processing and chemical treatment, not confined to a single equipment type.
China leads with 16 filings by receiving office, followed by India with 12 and the European Patent Office with 10. The United States, Australia and Singapore each show single-digit-to-single-digit-high activity, with the US at 9 and Australia and Singapore at 7 each. This spread suggests companies are pursuing protection across multiple major markets rather than concentrating filings in one region.
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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.