Two-Phase Cold Plate Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
A data-backed view of two-phase cold plate patenting: filing trends through 2024, IPC composition across 8 subclasses, assignee concentration, and the most-cited prior art shaping electronics thermal management.
Filing growth = 2021 (51 records) → 2024 (73); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 1,053 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Two-phase cold plates move heat by evaporating and condensing a working fluid inside a sealed loop rather than relying on single-phase liquid flow alone. The approach matters because it can pull substantially more heat per unit area than conventional cold plates, which is why it shows up in patent filings tied to high-density processors, data-centre racks, and power electronics. This landscape covers 1,053 published records filed or published between 2015 and the 2026-08-31 data cut-off, spanning assignees from oil-and-gas majors to chipmakers to industrial thermal specialists.
The dataset is read at the family level wherever concentration and ranking figures are quoted, so continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates do not inflate any single assignee's position. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will understate actual filing activity and should not be read as a slowdown.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,053-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 30 in 2017 to a peak of 78 in 2022, then held in a comparable range through 2024, including the +43% climb from 51 filings in 2021 to 73 in 2024. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publications catch up to filing dates, so the apparent tail-off should not be read as declining interest.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H05K (printed circuits & assemblies) leads at 27.0% of all 1,053 records, roughly two-and-a-half times the next subclass, C22C (alloys) at 10.9%. Heat-treatment and semiconductor-device classes (C21D, H01L) each sit near 9%, while the refrigeration and heat-exchange classes (F25B, F28D) each cover roughly 8.5% — evidence that claims are split fairly evenly across packaging, materials and thermodynamic-apparatus framings rather than concentrated in one discipline.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,053 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Electronics Thermal Management: Two-Phase Cold Plate Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaRepresentative filing and citation leaders
Method and apparatus for controlling two-phase cold plate liquid cooling system, and system (US20250393166A1)
The filing describes active control of a two-phase cold plate loop: extracting gaseous medium from an evaporator outlet during operation, condensing it back to liquid in a condenser, and controlling a spray nozzle to redistribute the condensed medium. It is a control-and-apparatus claim on the operating cycle itself, filed by Suzhou Metabrain Intelligent Technology, rather than a claim on the cold plate's physical structure.Published 2025-12-25 — recent enough that its practical scope is still being tested against prior art.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6327994B1 | Scavenger energy converter system its new applications and its control systems | 421 |
| 2 | US6828675B2 | Modular cooling system and thermal bus for high power electronics cabinets | 183 |
| 3 | US20100328889A1 | Cooled electronic module with pump-enhanced, dielectric fluid immersion-cooling | 169 |
| 4 | US6397618B1 | Cooling system with auxiliary thermal buffer unit for cooling an electronics module | 163 |
| 5 | US20170092565A1 | Micro Heat Transfer Arrays, Micro Cold Plates, and Thermal Management Systems for Cooling Semiconductor Devic… | 150 |
| 6 | US4833567A | Integral heat pipe module | 124 |
| 7 | US20070193303A1 | Scalable capacity liquefied natural gas plant | 121 |
| 8 | US6784837B2 | Transmit/receiver module for active phased array antenna | 116 |
| 9 | US6508301B2 | Cold plate utilizing fin with evaporating refrigerant | 112 |
| 10 | US20070227470A1 | Lightweight Portable Electric Generator with Integrated Starter/Alternator | 101 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations; treat this table as a signal of influence on the field, not a ranking of current technical importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Four figures from this dataset that should shape where a team files next, and where it should expect to fight over prior art.
The field is not owned by a handful of players
The five most active assignees together account for 17.0% of all 1,053 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach only 26.5%. That leaves the majority of the claim space held by single- or few-filing entrants, which is unusual for a thermal management niche this active and suggests genuine room to establish a defensible position rather than license around an entrenched leader.
Filing momentum is real and recent
Filings climbed from 51 in 2021 to 73 in 2024, a +43% rise over three years, after peaking at 78 in 2022. That growth tracks the same period data-centre and AI-accelerator thermal loads pushed past what single-phase cold plates could handle, and it is the most reliable trend read available since 2025-onward counts are still incomplete.
Packaging claims outnumber refrigeration claims
H05K (printed circuits & assemblies) covers 27.0% of the 1,053 records, more than double the next-largest subclass, C22C (alloys) at 10.9%. Refrigeration-specific classes such as F25B and F28D each sit near 8.5%, meaning most applicants are claiming the cold plate as an electronics-packaging component rather than as a standalone refrigeration apparatus.
Filing is US-centred with a strong PCT and EPO tail
The United States receives more filings than any other office at 378 records, with Europe (EPO) at 153 and WIPO/PCT filings at 97 behind it. India, China and Canada each carry meaningfully smaller counts, indicating that applicants pursuing broad protection are routing through PCT before selecting the US and Europe as primary destinations.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electronics thermal management: two-phase cold plate 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, white-space filing, or tracking a competitor.
Map claim scope against the most-cited prior art
Start from the highest-citation records in this dataset and work forward to see which later filings design around them versus which sit on the same claim territory. This is the fastest way to find out whether a planned filing is walking into dense prior art.
Explore prior art in Eureka →Track the assignees moving fastest, not just the largest
Because concentration is low, year-over-year movement among mid-ranked assignees is often more informative than the leader's absolute count. Watching who is accelerating filings in H05K versus F25B reveals where competitive pressure is building.
Set up assignee tracking in Eureka →Stress-test white space claims before filing
Subclasses below H05K and C22C in this composition — F25J and H10W among them — carry meaningfully lower filing density and may offer room for a first-mover claim, but that needs verification against full claim text, not just IPC counts.
Run a white-space search in Eureka →Common questions about two-phase cold plate patents
No single company dominates this field: the leading assignee holds 51 of the 1,053 records in scope, and the top 5 assignees combined account for only 17.0% of all records. The top 10 combined reach 26.5%, which means well over 70% of filings sit outside the most active ten organisations. This is a fragmented landscape compared with many hardware niches, so competitive tracking needs to watch beyond the obvious names.
Yes, based on the most recent complete years: filings rose from 51 in 2021 to 73 in 2024, a documented +43% increase, after an earlier peak of 78 in 2022. Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower in the data, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a genuine drop in activity. The 2021–2024 window is the most reliable basis for judging momentum.
The largest single class is H05K, printed circuits and assemblies, covering 27.0% of the 1,053 records — reflecting that most cold plate claims are framed around electronics packaging integration. C22C (alloys, 10.9%), C21D (heat treatment of metals, 9.1%), H01L (semiconductor devices, 8.8%), F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps, 8.5%) and F28D (heat-exchange apparatus, 8.4%) round out the major categories. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100%.
The lower-density IPC subclasses in this dataset, such as F25J (gas liquefaction and separation, 6.6%) and H10W (7.6%), carry fewer filings than the dominant H05K and C22C classes and are worth closer inspection for underclaimed sub-branches. Low overall assignee concentration (top 5 at just 17.0% of records) also means the field has room for new entrants generally. Any white-space read from IPC counts alone should be verified against actual claim language before committing to a filing strategy.
The most-cited record in this dataset is US6327994B1, cited 421 times, followed by US6828675B2 and several other filings in the 150-190 citation range covering modular cooling systems and pump-enhanced immersion cooling. High citation counts in a searched corpus tend to favour older filings that have simply had more time to accumulate citations, so this list is best read as a map of foundational influence rather than a ranking of current best practice. Newer filings, including recent activity from companies like Suzhou Metabrain, are still accumulating citations and may prove equally significant over time.
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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.