Electronics Manufacturing & Packaging Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled from its peak. Volume ran 980 in 2021 down to 546 in 2024, a 44% drop over that span, before the trend flattens into the still-incomplete 2025–2026 window.
- No single filer dominates. The leader holds 1,991 records, but the top 5 combined are only 15.6% of all 25,393 records in scope — this is a field with a long tail, not a chokepoint.
- Printed circuits and semiconductors carry the bulk of the claim space. H05K and H01L together touch over half the records, while adjacent classes like G01R and A61B sit under 4% each — that gap is where the room is.
Filing growth compares 2021 (980 records) with 2024 (546) — 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 25,393 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What's being claimed, and by whom
Electronics manufacturing and packaging patents span the physical assembly of circuits — printed circuit boards, connectors, soldering, electromagnetic compatibility — as much as they span the silicon inside. The dataset behind this page covers 25,393 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search string that deliberately pairs manufacturing-process terms with packaging and interconnect terms, so the corpus captures both the board-level and device-level sides of the field. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent years in any trend understate real filing activity.
Filing offices skew heavily toward the United States, with Europe and the WIPO PCT route as the next largest gateways — a pattern consistent with a field where US prosecution remains the default first filing and international protection follows through PCT rather than direct national filings elsewhere.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: how many records published each year, and which IPC subclasses those records fall into. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, the composition shares add up to more than the record total — that is expected and is the same denominator the chart uses.
Filing rose to a 2021 peak, then eased
Annual volume climbed from 746 in 2017 to a peak of 980 in 2021, then fell to 546 by 2024 — a decline of 44% across that three-year window. Years after 2024 are still filling in as publications catch up to filing dates, so treat 2025 and 2026 as provisional floors, not a continued slide.
Printed circuits and semiconductors set the centre of gravity
H05K (printed circuits & assemblies) leads at 27.3% of the 25,393 records in scope, with H01L (semiconductor devices) close behind at 24.3%. H10W and H01R follow at 13.3% and 7.7%; everything past that — data processing, measurement, diagnostic hardware — sits under 5%, marking the outer edge of where this search string's claim density thins out.
Shares are the percentage of the 25,393 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Electronics Manufacturing & Packaging Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about electronics manufacturing & packaging patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim on the manufacturing side
Electronic assembly comprising a carrier structure made from a printed circuit board
An electronic assembly includes a base carrier structure with a cavity, a cover carrier structure, and an electronic component inside the cavity connected electrically and/or thermally to both. The base carrier — and preferably the cover carrier too — is made at least partially from a printed circuit board, with a manufacturing method described alongside.Filed by AT & S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik, published 2018-03-27.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6749587B2 | Modular infusion device and method | 1,813 |
| 2 | US20020040208A1 | Data collection assembly for patient infusion system | 1,413 |
| 3 | US20040105264A1 | Multiple Light-Source Illuminating System | 1,261 |
| 4 | US6832725B2 | Optical reader comprising multiple color illumination | 1,233 |
| 5 | US20150201918A1 | Surgical Handpiece | 1,097 |
| 6 | US8911448B2 | Device and method for enabling an orthopedic tool for parameter measurement | 1,070 |
| 7 | US20030093187A1 | PFN/TRAC systemTM FAA upgrades for accountable remote and robotics control to stop the unauthorized use of ai… | 977 |
| 8 | US20120206050A1 | Detector Controlled Illuminating System | 935 |
| 9 | US20130292477A1 | Image sensor based optical reader | 885 |
| 10 | US20040204673A1 | Modular infusion device and method | 854 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they've had longer to accumulate citations inside this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence, not of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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The headline figures point to a field that is broad rather than deep at the top, with claim density concentrated in two IPC classes and a filing curve that has already passed its high-water mark.
The top five hold a minority, not a chokepoint
Combined, the five leading assignees account for 15.6% of all records in scope, and the top ten only reach 19.7%. That leaves roughly four-fifths of the corpus outside the ranked leaders — a genuinely fragmented ownership structure rather than a field gated by a handful of players.
Volume has eased from its 2021 peak
Filing rose from 746 records in 2017 to a peak of 980 in 2021, then fell to 546 by 2024. That's a real three-year decline, not an artefact of publication lag, because 2024 is the most recent year in this dataset that can be treated as complete.
Two classes carry the bulk of the claim density
H05K (printed circuits & assemblies) and H01L (semiconductor devices) between them touch over half the corpus by share, though because records carry multiple classes these figures overlap rather than sum to a clean total. Everything below H10W and H01R sits under 5% — thin enough that a well-drafted claim there faces far less crowded prior art.
Even active filers have slowed sharply
Among the more active recent filers, year-on-year counts in the latest year range from a handful of filings down to zero, with drops of 83% to 100% widely reported across formerly prolific assignees. Read this alongside the 18-month publication lag rather than as evidence those companies have stopped innovating.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electronics manufacturing & packaging patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
A fragmented leaderboard with a long tail
The ranked leaders span semiconductor manufacturers, diversified industrials, and connector and packaging specialists — a mix that reflects how broadly this search string spans the manufacturing-to-device stack. No single company's recent activity dominates the field the way the leader's cumulative total might suggest.
A large cumulative lead, but slowing recent output
The top-ranked assignee's cumulative total of 1,991 records is nearly double the fifth-place holder's 249, yet its most recent-year filing count has fallen sharply year-on-year — consistent with a broad portfolio built over the full 2015–2026 window rather than a currently accelerating push.
The drop-off past the leader is gradual
Fifth place holds 249 records and tenth place 181 — a gentle slope rather than a cliff, which is typical of a field defined by a broad process-and-packaging search string spanning many manufacturing disciplines rather than one narrow technology.
Co-filing is limited and mostly internal
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the corpus, and the strongest of them link a parent company to its own IP subsidiary or a named inventor rather than to an external partner — evidence that most patenting here happens within a single corporate structure, not through joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Corp | 4 | -83% |
| NuCurrent Inc | 1 | -94% |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | -100% |
| NOCO Co | 0 | -100% |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | 0 | -100% |
| Amphenol Corp | 0 | -100% |
| Micron Technology Inc | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a fragmented field with two dense IPC classes and several thinner adjacent branches. The next step is narrowing from field-level trends to claim-level detail.
Map a specific sub-branch
Pull the full claim set for a single under-claimed area — EMC shielding or flexible interconnects, for instance — and check freedom to operate against the specific assignees active there.
Explore this in EurekaTrack a named competitor's recent filings
Cumulative rank and recent-year momentum diverge for several leaders in this dataset; a company that looks dominant by total count may have gone quiet in the last complete filing year.
Run a competitor watch in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked field with 1,991 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 249. But the top five combined account for only 15.6% of all 25,393 records in scope, and the top ten reach just 19.7% — so no single company controls the field, and a long tail of smaller filers holds the majority of the claim space. Anyone assessing competitive risk here should look past the leaderboard to the specific sub-technology in question, since dominance at the aggregate level does not imply dominance in any one branch.
Filing rose from 746 records in 2017 to a peak of 980 in 2021, then declined to 546 by 2024 — a drop of 44% over that three-year span, and 2024 is the most recent year in this dataset that can be treated as complete. Years after that are still filling in because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent low counts in 2025 and 2026 are an artefact of that lag, not proof the field has kept slowing. The honest read is a peak behind us and a real decline through 2024, with the trajectory since genuinely unknown until more publications land.
Printed circuits and assemblies (IPC class H05K) lead at 27.3% of all 25,393 records, with semiconductor devices (H01L) close behind at 24.3%. H10W and connectors (H01R) follow at 13.3% and 7.7% respectively, and everything past that — digital data processing, electric and magnetic measurement, diagnostic hardware — sits under 5% each. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares overlap rather than sum to 100%, but the pattern is clear: two classes anchor the field and the rest thin out quickly.
The classes furthest from the core — electric and magnetic measurement, diagnostic and surgical hardware, and the mid-tier interconnect and testing classes — carry well under 5% of records each, compared to over a quarter for the leading printed-circuit class. That gap suggests areas like electromagnetic compatibility shielding, ruggedised enclosures, flexible interconnect substrates and in-line testing methods are comparatively under-claimed relative to their likely commercial relevance. A freedom-to-operate search focused on one of these narrower branches is far more tractable than trying to clear the dense H05K/H01L core.
US9929101B2, filed by AT & S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik and published in 2018, claims an electronic assembly built from a base carrier structure with a cavity, a cover carrier structure, and an electronic component inside the cavity connected electrically and/or thermally to both carriers. The distinguishing feature is that the base carrier — and preferably the cover carrier too — is made at least partially from a printed circuit board, plus a manufacturing method for the assembly. Anyone designing a cavity-embedded component package using PCB material for the carrier structures should review this claim set closely before finalising a design.
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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.