FinFET Power-Performance Efficiency Patent Snapshot
The FinFET power-performance efficiency space is heavily concentrated, with a small cluster of established semiconductor giants holding the dominant share of filings and annual volume having eased from its 2017 peak. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. leads the ranked applicant pool, signalling that foundry-level process expertise is the primary battleground.
TSMC dominates a tightly held applicant pool
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. sits at the top of the applicant ranking, reflecting a portfolio built overwhelmingly around semiconductor device fabrication and integration (H01L sub-classes). International Business Machines Corporation and Renesas Electronics Corporation follow as second- and third-ranked filers, completing a leadership tier that collectively holds the majority of activity within the top hundred ranked filers.
The top five applicants account for 80% of the combined patent records among the ranked applicants visible in this query. That degree of concentration leaves limited room for mid-tier challengers to close the gap through incremental filings alone; any meaningful repositioning would require either a step-change in filing pace or a differentiated technical angle.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. | 18 | |
| 2 | International Business Machines Corporation | 10 | |
| 3 | Renesas Electronics Corporation | 7 | |
| 4 | Intel Corporation | 6 | |
| 5 | Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. | 4 | |
| 6 | Alsephina Innovations Inc. | 2 | |
| 7 | Swami Vivekananda Subharti University | 2 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation | 1 | |
| 9 | Tarun Kumar Gupta | 1 | |
| 10 | SK Hasane Ahammad | 1 | |
| 11 | Vijay Kumar Magraiya | 1 | |
| 12 | Rahul O. Vaishya | 1 | |
| 13 | Shiv Prasad Kori | 1 | |
| 14 | Intel IP Corporation | 1 |
The leaders’ positions imply that visible players have already staked out core process and device-structure claims. New entrants or smaller teams face a crowded core but may find more freedom in adjacent branches such as memory integration or logic-circuit applications of FinFET architectures.
Patent records published within the most recent 18–24 months are typically still working through examination and publication pipelines, so the latest data points understate actual recent activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filings peaked in 2017; semiconductor device fabrication dominates the technology mix
Two lenses — annual filing volume and IPC class composition — reveal both the maturity of the field and the narrow technical focus of its main practitioners.
Annual filing trend
Filing activity reached its high point in 2017 and has trended lower in subsequent years. The most recent one to two annual data points reflect publication lag and should be treated as incomplete; the apparent near-zero readings for 2025–2026 do not represent a true activity collapse.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01L (Semiconductor devices) is visible in the IPC mix by a wide margin, confirming that core transistor fabrication and device-structure claims anchor the field. H10D (Semiconductor devices, general) and H10B (Memory device manufacture) are the next largest branches, while G06F (Electric digital data processing) and H10N (Other electric solid-state devices) represent smaller but potentially differentiated adjacent areas.
↗ 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.
Dual-onofic technique for subthreshold leakage red…
The present invention is related to Dual-ONOFIC Technique for Subthreshold Leakage Reduction in Domino OR Gates. The objective of present invention is to solve the abnormalities presented in the prior art techniques related to subthreshold leakage reduction in domino or gates. The present ONOFIC circuit technique is used for low subthreshold leakage power… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
Open this patent in Eureka →| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fin Field Effect Transistor (FINFET) | 63 |
| 2 | Self-aligned epitaxy layer | 61 |
| 3 | Epitaxial buffer layer for finfet source and drain… | 37 |
| 4 | Multiple CPP for increased source/drain area for f… | 29 |
| 5 | Method and Structure for III-V FinFET | 20 |
| 6 | Self-aligned epitaxy layer | 12 |
| 7 | Fin field effect transistor (finfet) | 11 |
| 8 | Fin field effect transistor (finFET) | 11 |
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.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
TSMC holds the top position with 18 patent records, concentrated entirely within H01L semiconductor device sub-classes (H01L 21, H01L 29, and H01L 27 each with 16, 16, and 14 records respectively under their applicant-tech profile), reflecting a foundry focus on fabrication process and device-structure claims. Recent momentum data flags them as a new entrant in the most recent filing window, suggesting renewed activity after an earlier quieter period.
patent records: 18International Business Machines Corporation
IBM ranks second with 10 patent records and shares the same H01L 21 and H01L 29 focus as TSMC, though with a notably active co-filing relationship with Renesas Electronics Corporation (7 joint records). This IBM–Renesas axis represents the most significant collaborative cluster in the corpus. IBM’s technology profile skews toward semiconductor device process and structure, with H01L 27 integration also prominent.
patent records: 10Frequently asked questions
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. leads the applicant ranking with 18 patent records, well ahead of the second-ranked International Business Machines Corporation at 10 records.
The top five filers account for 80% of the combined patent records among the ranked applicants visible in this query, indicating a highly concentrated field dominated by established semiconductor incumbents.
The United States is the primary filing jurisdiction by patent-record count, followed by India and WIPO (PCT), with Australia as a minor additional route.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 and has eased since. The lifecycle evidence classifies the field as being in a decline phase. The most recent annual data points reflect publication lag and should not be read as a sharp collapse in activity.
International Business Machines Corporation and Renesas Electronics Corporation have the most active co-filing relationship, with 7 jointly filed records. Beyond that pairing, collaboration in this corpus is limited, with most IP filed unilaterally by large incumbents.
H10B (Memory device manufacture) at 5 records and G06F (Electric digital data processing) at 3 records are among the sparsest branches relative to the visible H01L core, and both have plausible technical connections to FinFET power-performance work. H10P and H10N are also thin. These are observations of relative sparsity; a full opportunity assessment requires independent technical and freedom-to-operate analysis.
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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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