This landscape tracks 151 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that match shielding-effectiveness, conformal shielding and shielding-can terminology alongside 5G module and antenna-coexistence language. That figure counts families rather than raw document counts, which avoids inflating the total through continuations or multiple jurisdictional filings of the same invention. It is a filtered slice of the broader EMI shielding literature, not the entire field.

Based on the tracked data, filings peaked in 2019 at 9 records and had eased to 5 by the 2022 midpoint, with no rebound visible since. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any such dataset will always look artificially low, so a flat or declining recent trend should be read cautiously rather than taken as proof the technology has stalled.

H05K, covering printed circuits and assemblies, accounts for 96 of the 151 tracked records and is the dominant class, followed by H01L semiconductor devices at 59. Smaller but relevant classes include H01Q for antennas and H04B for general transmission, reflecting that shielding decisions are increasingly made alongside RF and antenna design rather than in isolation. A filing that only touches H05K without considering H01L packaging interactions may miss adjacent prior art.

US20190181906A1, assigned to Skywoks Solutions, describes RF modules with a packaging substrate carrying a receiving system of amplifiers, filters, switching networks and multiplexers, shielded by a conductive layer within a conformal structure covering the module's upper side and side walls. It matters as a representative example of how conformal shielding claims are structured around the packaging substrate rather than the shield material alone. Anyone drafting around conformal shielding for a diversity-receive or multi-radio module should check claim scope against this filing specifically.

The data suggests thinner coverage in antenna-coexistence tuning tied specifically to shielding geometry, sputtered shield thickness optimisation, and backside seal process variants, all of which appear in the search criteria but carry lower record counts than the core H05K shielding-can claims. These branches sit adjacent to dense prior art rather than being entirely open, so a first claim there should be scoped narrowly around the specific process or tuning parameter rather than the shielding structure generally. Verifying against the most-cited backside-seal and segment-buildup patents before drafting is advisable.