Ferroelectric Thin Film Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at five families a year and has not recovered, with the midpoint year sitting at just two — this is a flat-to-declining field, not a growth one.
- The most-cited record in the corpus is a PZT microdevice patent cited 193 times, meaning the foundational claim space around basic ferroelectric device structures was staked out decades ago.
- Recent-year momentum has gone quiet across the named assignees, with zero new filings in the latest year from every company tracked for momentum — activity has shifted or paused industry-wide.
What the ferroelectric thin film patent record shows
Ferroelectric thin film materials sit at the intersection of memory device manufacturing and coating deposition science. The dataset behind this page spans 194 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search combining ferroelectric HfO2, wake-up mitigation and doped-film terminology with the core semiconductor and coating IPC classes. The technology composition skews heavily toward semiconductor devices (H01L) and other solid-state devices (H10N), with coating and surface deposition (C23C) as the next largest block — confirming that most activity in this space is device-integration work built on top of established film-deposition chemistry.
Filing activity is not accelerating. The trend runs from zero in 2017 to a single-digit peak of five families in 2021, then eases back toward the midpoint year's count of two. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the final one or two years in any such trend will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — but even allowing for that lag, this is a mature, occupied claim space rather than an expanding one.
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Filing trend and technology composition
The numbers below come directly from the underlying family and publication data — they set the boundaries for every claim made elsewhere on this page.
A flat trend with one modest peak
Annual filings rise from zero in 2017 to a peak of five families in 2021, then fall back toward two by the midpoint year of 2022. There is no sustained upward run anywhere in the window, which argues against treating this as an emerging technology and for treating it as a settled one with periodic re-filing around specific device generations.
Concentration in device integration, not raw materials chemistry
H01L (semiconductor devices) and H10N (other electric solid-state devices) dominate the classification counts, well ahead of C23C (coating and surface deposition) and C30B (crystal growth). That ordering says the bulk of recent patenting effort goes into integrating ferroelectric films into device structures — memory cells, actuators, sensors — rather than into the base film-growth chemistry itself, where the classification counts are comparatively thin.
Shares are the percentage of the 194 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Ferroelectric Thin Film Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ferroelectric thin film advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe patents everyone else in this field cites
Method for manufacturing oxide ferroelectric thin film oxide ferroelectric thin film and oxide ferroelectric thin film element
A method of manufacturing an oxide ferroelectric thin film of Bi, Ti and O by an MOCVD method on a substrate having an electrode formed thereon, comprising the step of supplying material gases capable of forming the oxide ferroelectric thin film onto the substrate, wherein an oxygen gas flow rate relative to a total gas flow rate of the material gases is controlled to a value required for obtaining the oxide ferroelectric thin film having a predetermined orientation and/or coercive field, and a flow rate of at least one of the material gases containing constituent elements other than oxygen constituting the oxide ferroelectric thin film is controlled so that a compositional ratio of the constituent elements falls within a target range.Filed by Sharp; published 2002-10-24. Representative of MOCVD-based bismuth-titanate film control claims from this period.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5914507A | PZT microdevice | 193 |
| 2 | US5536963A | Microdevice with ferroelectric for sensing or applying a force | 137 |
| 3 | US6096434A | Film structure, electronic device, recording medium, and method for forming conductive oxide thin films | 116 |
| 4 | US20040155559A1 | Ferroelectric thin film element, piezoelectric actuator and liquid discharge head | 53 |
| 5 | US5271955A | Method for making a semiconductor device having an anhydrous ferroelectric thin film | 44 |
| 6 | US5670218A | Method for forming ferroelectric thin film and apparatus therefor | 43 |
| 7 | US6376090B1 | Method for manufacturing a substrate with an oxide ferroelectric thin film formed thereon and a substrate wit… | 40 |
| 8 | JP1997153597A | Ferroelectric thin film element, fabrication thereof, and ferroelectric memory element | 38 |
| 9 | US5834803A | Oriented ferroelectric thin film element and process for preparing the same | 35 |
| 10 | US6111284A | Ferroelectric thin-film device | 32 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings by construction — read them as a measure of influence on later filers, not as a signal of present-day relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing and citation data implies
Three patterns recur across the trend, classification and citation data: an early foundational layer that still gets cited, a shift of recent effort toward device integration, and a filing curve that has already peaked.
Growth has already peaked and eased back
The filing count rises from zero in 2017 to five in 2021 before falling toward two by the 2022 midpoint. Read alongside the roughly eighteen-month publication lag, the most recent one or two years will look thinner than the true filing rate — but no year in the series suggests a new growth phase is underway.
Device integration dominates over base chemistry
H01L and H10N together account for the large majority of classification hits, well ahead of C23C coating work and C30B crystal growth. New filers are mostly building device structures around known ferroelectric films rather than contesting the underlying materials chemistry.
Foundational device claims are decades old
The most-cited record in the corpus, a PZT microdevice patent, carries 193 citations — far above the next-ranked records. That concentration signals the basic device-level claim space around ferroelectric microdevices was established early and has been built on rather than re-opened.
Recent-year momentum has gone quiet
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year. That does not necessarily mean exit from the field — given publication lag, it more likely reflects filings still working through the pipeline — but it does mean the visible record currently shows no single assignee pulling ahead.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ferroelectric thin film advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the filings, and where the field is thin
Filing offices and co-assignee patterns point to a Japan-and-US-centred field with Korean participation, built through both solo filings and a small number of close collaborations.
United States is the dominant filing venue
The United States receives the largest share of filings at 96, with the European Patent Office a distant second at 53. Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Taiwan each account for single-digit-to-low-teens counts, indicating this is primarily a US/EPO-adjudicated field with an established Japanese filing base.
Close collaboration is rare and concentrated
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset pairs Sumitomo Chemical with Kanto Chemical across seven joint filings. Beyond that pairing, co-assignment activity is sparse, suggesting most work in this field is filed by single entities rather than through formal joint development.
No assignee is currently pulling ahead
Sharp, Sumitomo Chemical, Seiko Epson, Mitsubishi Materials and other named assignees all register zero filings in the most recent tracked year. Given the publication lag inherent to patent data, this reads as a pipeline gap rather than confirmed withdrawal, but it does mean no single company currently shows visible acceleration.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Mitsubishi Materials Corporation | 0 | — |
| Sharp Corporation | 0 | — |
| Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Seiko Epson Corporation | 0 | — |
| Advanced Technology Materials, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Japan) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and classification data set the boundaries of the field; the next step is usually to pressure-test a specific claim or filing gap against the full record.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top-cited records
Before committing to a device-integration claim in H01L or H10N, run the specific film composition and deposition parameters against the most-cited patents in this corpus, several of which remain active reference points for later filers.
Explore in Eureka →Map the under-claimed branches in detail
Coating and crystal-growth classifications carry noticeably fewer filings than device-integration classes. A claim built around wake-up mitigation or coercive-field control at the growth stage may face less crowded prior art.
Explore in Eureka →Common questions about ferroelectric thin film patents
The dataset shows named assignees including Sharp, Sumitomo Chemical, Seiko Epson and Mitsubishi Materials among the companies with filings in this space, alongside Sharp Laboratories of America as a related entity. None of these assignees show filings in the most recent tracked year, which given the roughly eighteen-month publication lag likely reflects pipeline delay rather than confirmed exit. The strongest documented collaboration is between Sumitomo Chemical and Kanto Chemical, who co-file together more than any other pair in the corpus.
Filing activity peaked at five families in 2021 and has eased back since, with the 2022 midpoint sitting at only two. That is a flat-to-declining pattern rather than sustained growth. Because publication lags filing by about eighteen months, the very latest years will understate true activity somewhat, but nothing in the longer trend points to an emerging growth phase.
The most-cited record in this corpus is a PZT microdevice patent (US5914507A) with 193 citations, well ahead of the next-ranked records. A related sensing/force-application ferroelectric microdevice patent (US5536963A) and a conductive oxide thin film structure patent (US6096434A) round out the most-cited group. Their citation weight indicates the basic device-level architecture for ferroelectric microdevices was established early and has shaped subsequent filings rather than being re-opened.
H01L (semiconductor devices) and H10N (other electric solid-state devices) account for the largest share of the 194 tracked families, well ahead of C23C coating and surface deposition and C30B crystal growth. That distribution shows recent patenting effort concentrates on integrating ferroelectric films into device structures such as memory cells and actuators, rather than on contesting the base film-growth chemistry, where filing density is comparatively lighter.
The classification data points to coating and crystal-growth routes — C23C and C30B — as comparatively under-filed relative to the dominant H01L and H10N device-integration classes. Specific technical angles worth checking include wake-up mitigation in doped HfO2 films, coercive-field tuning through oxygen flow ratio control during deposition, and crystal orientation control at the MOCVD growth stage. Any of these would need a freedom-to-operate check against the most-cited foundational patents before filing, since those records remain active reference points.
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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.