FinFET Doping & Ion Implantation Patent Landscape
The FinFET doping and ion implantation space is a highly concentrated, post-peak field dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), whose patent position dwarfs all other filers. Annual filing volume peaked in 2017 and has declined steadily since, signalling a maturing technology base where differentiation now rests on niche sub-domains rather than broad new filings.
TSMC leads a tightly concentrated field; IBM and GlobalFoundries form a distant second tier
TSMC holds the leading position by a wide margin, topping the applicant ranking with 1,530 patent records — nearly three times the count of second-ranked IBM (525 patent records) and more than four times that of third-ranked GlobalFoundries US (335 patent records).
The top five filers — TSMC, IBM, GlobalFoundries US, SMIC Shanghai, and Elpis Tech — together account for 69% of the combined patent records across the hundred largest filers, indicating extreme concentration at the apex of this field. The tier gap between TSMC and everyone else is structural, not marginal.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | 1,530 | |
| 2 | International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 525 | |
| 3 | GlobalFoundries US Inc. | 335 | |
| 4 | Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation (SMIC Shanghai) | 138 | |
| 5 | Elpis Tech Inc. | 99 | |
| 6 | Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corporation (SMIC Beijing) | 97 | |
| 7 | GlobalFoundries Inc. | 93 | |
| 8 | Intel Corporation | 92 | |
| 9 | Adeia Semiconductor Solutions LLC | 91 | |
| 10 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 74 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 49 | |
| 12 | STMicroelectronics Inc. | 49 | |
| 13 | Qualcomm Incorporated | 48 | |
| 14 | Alsephina Innovations Inc. | 48 | |
| 15 | Applied Materials, Inc. | 46 | |
| 16 | United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) | 39 | |
| 17 | Bell Semiconductor LLC | 35 | |
| 18 | Parabellum Strategic Opportunities Fund LLC | 33 | |
| 19 | Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. | 30 | |
| 20 | Renesas Electronics Corporation | 20 |
TSMC’s dominant position means it sets the technical baseline for FinFET doping architecture; challengers seeking freedom to operate or differentiation must work around a dense TSMC claim landscape spanning device structure, process integration, and fin channel engineering.
Filing counts for 2024 and 2025 are materially under-counted due to the 18–24 month patent publication lag and should not be read as representative of current activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing activity has declined from a 2017 peak; semiconductor device classes dominate the technology mix
Two complementary views — annual filing volume and IPC class composition — together show a field that established its technical foundation between 2017 and 2019 and is now consolidating, with residual filing activity concentrated in core semiconductor device classes.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings peaked at 434 in 2017 and declined progressively to 119 in 2023 and 79 in 2024. The 2024 and 2025 data points are substantially under-counted due to publication lag and should not be treated as final; the underlying 2022–2023 trajectory already confirms a sustained post-peak decline of 54% over the recent window.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01L (Semiconductor devices) dominates the IPC class mix by a large margin, confirming that activity is focused on device-level doping and implantation rather than peripheral areas. H10D (Semiconductor devices, general) and H10B (Memory device manufacture) represent secondary clusters; all other branches — including nanotechnology, organic semiconductors, and optical devices — carry very low counts relative to the core.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Asymmetric threshold voltage finfet device by part…
A FinFET having an asymmetric threshold voltage distribution is provided by forming a halo ion implantation region in a semiconductor fin, and in close proximity to a source region, of the FinFET. The halo ion implantation region is self-aligned to an outermost sidewall surface of the functional gate structure of the FinFET and it has a higher dopant… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finfet transistor structures having a double gate … | 1,388 |
| 2 | Fin structure of FinFET | 1,322 |
| 3 | Barrier layer for FinFET channels | 602 |
| 4 | Fin FET devices from bulk semiconductor and method… | 573 |
| 5 | FINFET Structures and Methods of Forming the Same | 564 |
| 6 | Germanium FinFETs with metal gates and stressors | 544 |
| 7 | FinFET device having a channel defined in a diamon… | 540 |
| 8 | Finfet structure and method for manufacturing ther… | 534 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the patent structure implies for R&D investment and competitive positioning
The combination of a declining filing trajectory, extreme leader concentration, and a dense core IPC cluster shapes where incremental R&D investment is likely to find the most room and where it faces the highest prior-art density.
Decline stage: core techniques are well-patented
The lifecycle stage is Decline, with annual filings easing back from the 2017 peak and a recent-window growth rate of –54%. The foundational device structures, fin channel engineering, and standard implant sequences are comprehensively covered. New filings are narrowing to refinements and edge applications rather than foundational claims.
Post-peakTSMC’s dominance creates a high freedom-to-operate barrier
The top five filers hold 69% of the patent records among the hundred largest filers, and TSMC alone holds 1,530 records — more than the next four combined. Any new entrant or challenger must conduct thorough freedom-to-operate analysis against TSMC’s claim landscape before committing to process development in this space.
High concentrationIBM–GlobalFoundries alliance and SMIC intra-group co-filing are the dominant ecosystems
The most active co-filing pair is SMIC Shanghai and SMIC Beijing with 98 jointly filed patent records, reflecting intra-group portfolio consolidation. The IBM–GlobalFoundries pair produced 47 co-filed records, and IBM also co-filed with STMicroelectronics (22 records) and GlobalFoundries similarly with STMicroelectronics (22 records), forming a coherent tri-party alliance. TSMC co-filed five records with National Chiao Tung University, signalling selective academic engagement.
Alliance-drivenUS-centric filing with thin international coverage outside EPO
The United States is the overwhelmingly dominant filing jurisdiction with 3,353 patent records. Europe (EPO) is a distant second at 82 records, followed by WIPO PCT at 58. China (32 records), South Korea (21 records), and Taiwan (18 records) trail significantly, suggesting that patent protection outside the US has been selectively pursued. This creates potential gaps in jurisdiction-specific freedom to operate, particularly in China and South Korea where FinFET manufacturing is strategically significant.
US-dominantGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation (SMIC Shanghai) | Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corporation (SMIC Beijing) | 98 |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | GlobalFoundries Inc. | 47 |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | STMicroelectronics Inc. | 22 |
| GlobalFoundries Inc. | STMicroelectronics Inc. | 22 |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | Renesas Electronics Corporation | 9 |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | National Chiao Tung University | 5 |
| GlobalFoundries Inc. | French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) | 4 |
| STMicroelectronics Inc. | French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) | 4 |
| STMicroelectronics Inc. | STMicroelectronics (Crolles 2) SAS | 3 |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | JSR Corporation | 2 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
TSMC leads on volume; IBM and GlobalFoundries anchor the alliance tier
The top two tiers are separated by a large absolute gap. TSMC’s position is built on breadth across all core semiconductor device classes; IBM and GlobalFoundries have historically filed jointly and share a similar H01L-focused technology profile.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC)
TSMC holds 1,530 patent records — the largest position in this landscape by far — concentrated across H01L 29 (device structures), H01L 21 (process integration), and H01L 27 (integrated circuits). Recent filing momentum shows a –42% trend versus the prior period, consistent with the field-wide post-peak decline rather than a loss of competitive position. TSMC remains the reference filer against which all others are measured.
families: 1530International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
IBM ranks second with 525 patent records, covering the same H01L 29 / H01L 21 / H01L 27 triad as TSMC. Its filing momentum is –84% in the recent period, the steepest decline among tracked leaders, which reflects IBM’s progressive exit from direct semiconductor manufacturing. Much of IBM’s portfolio has migrated to co-assignees including GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics through collaboration agreements, making alliance mapping essential when assessing its effective coverage.
families: 525| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | 273 | ▼ -42% |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 15 | ▼ -84% |
| Intel Corporation | 4 | ▼ -71% |
| STMicroelectronics Inc. | 4 | ▼ -80% |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 4 | ▼ -69% |
Memory device manufacture and novel solid-state devices are under-served relative to the core
Four IPC branches sit at the margins of the dominant H01L cluster with meaningfully lower patent record counts. Two carry sufficient technical adjacency and plausible entry paths to warrant closer attention by teams considering where to differentiate.
H10B · Memory device manufacture
H10B covers the application of FinFET-style doping techniques specifically to memory cell architectures — an adjacent branch with 288 patent records and a 5% share among all classified records, compared to the dominant H01L core. As DRAM and emerging non-volatile memory nodes move to fin-based structures for leakage control, implant profiles optimised for memory-specific requirements (e.g., threshold voltage tuning in array vs. periphery) represent a technically distinct problem set. The relatively sparse coverage versus logic FinFET suggests room for focused process-patent development, though teams should verify freedom to operate against IBM and TSMC’s broader H01L 27 claims.
Search this in Eureka →H10N · Other electric solid-state devices
H10N, covering solid-state devices outside conventional CMOS (including tunnel FETs, negative-capacitance FETs, and spintronic structures), has only 52 patent records and a 1% share — the lowest count among the four identified adjacent branches with plausible technical relevance. Ion implantation for non-standard channel materials (e.g., III-V or 2D semiconductors) is an active research area in academic literature but has not yet translated into a dense patent cluster here. An entrant with expertise in unconventional channel doping could establish a differentiated position in this sparse sub-domain, though the small existing count also reflects early-stage commercial uncertainty.
Search this in Eureka →How the top filers differ by technology sub-class emphasis
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | H01L 29 · Semiconductor devices | H01L 21 · Semiconductor devices | H01L 27 · Semiconductor devices | H10D 62 · Semiconductor devices (general) | H10D 84 · Semiconductor devices (general) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | Strong · 1,507 | Strong · 1,335 | Moderate · 736 | Moderate · 385 | Moderate · 370 |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | Strong · 828 | Strong · 677 | Moderate · 410 | Moderate · 170 | Emerging · 150 |
| GlobalFoundries Inc. | Strong · 335 | Strong · 254 | Moderate · 133 | Moderate · 84 | Emerging · 67 |
| Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation (SMIC Shanghai) | Strong · 132 | Strong · 119 | Moderate · 46 | Absent | Absent |
| Intel Corporation | Strong · 100 | Strong · 67 | Moderate · 50 | Moderate · 24 | Moderate · 24 |
| STMicroelectronics Inc. | Strong · 100 | Strong · 61 | Strong · 58 | Moderate · 23 | Emerging · 20 |
| Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corporation (SMIC Beijing) | Strong · 95 | Strong · 83 | Moderate · 39 | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence identifies 1,935 patent families in scope for FinFET doping and ion implantation globally.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) leads with 1,530 patent records, followed by IBM at 525 and GlobalFoundries US at 335. The top five filers account for 69% of the patent records among the hundred largest filers.
Annual filings peaked in 2017 at 434 and have declined to 119 in 2023 and 79 in 2024. The lifecycle stage is Decline. The 2024 and 2025 figures are under-counted due to publication lag, but the underlying trajectory from 2017 through 2023 confirms a sustained post-peak decline.
The United States is the dominant jurisdiction with 3,353 patent records. Europe (EPO) is second at 82 records, followed by WIPO PCT at 58. China holds 32 records and South Korea 21, despite both being major FinFET manufacturing regions — a potential freedom-to-operate consideration.
Yes. The most active co-filing pair is SMIC Shanghai and SMIC Beijing (98 records), reflecting intra-group consolidation. IBM and GlobalFoundries co-filed 47 records, and both separately co-filed with STMicroelectronics (22 records each), forming a coherent three-party collaborative cluster.
H10B (Memory device manufacture, 288 records, 5% share) and H10N (Other electric solid-state devices, 52 records, 1% share) are the most technically relevant adjacent branches with relatively sparse coverage compared to the dominant H01L core. These represent observations of relative sparsity, not validated opportunities, and freedom-to-operate checks against the broader H01L claim landscape are essential before committing R&D resources.
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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.
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