Flexible and Thin-Film Battery Patents: Who Leads, Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2018 peak. eight records that year against zero at the 2022 midpoint, with the most recent year still incomplete due to publication lag.
- Filing sits with a small group. the top 5 assignees account for 51.4% of all 35 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 85.7%.
- Coating and deposition dominate outside core battery claims. C23C appears in 20.0% of records, with additive manufacturing, plastics shaping and semiconductor-device classes each in single digits.
What the flexible and thin-film battery patent record shows
Flexible and thin-film battery patents cover a narrow but technically demanding slice of energy storage: cells built as deposited layers or printed structures rather than wound or stacked electrodes, where bending-cycle capacity retention, packaging and sealing, and areal capacity under thin-film constraints are the recurring claim themes. The scope here is defined tightly by IPC classes H01M10, H01M6 and H01M50 combined with search terms tied to solid electrolyte thin films and device integration, which keeps the corpus small relative to battery patenting overall.
With 35 records in scope across the 2015-2026 window, the field is small enough that a handful of assignees shape the visible claim space, and the technology composition data points to fabrication process (coating, additive manufacturing, plastics shaping) as the area where activity spills outside core battery IPC classes.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 35 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the records fall into.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings peaked at 8 in 2018 and fell to 0 by the 2022 midpoint; the most recent year is partial because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so recent-year counts should be read as understated rather than as a real drop-off.
IPC subclass composition
Every record carries H01M by construction of the search. Beyond that, C23C (coating and surface deposition) appears in 20.0% of records, and additive manufacturing, catalysis, plastics shaping, inorganic compounds, materials testing and semiconductor devices each appear in 8.6-11.4% of records; because records can carry multiple classes these shares do not sum to 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 35 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Flexible and Thin-Film Batteries with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about flexible and thin-film batteries and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Thin film battery having textured layer (US7682733B2)
A monolithically integrated lithium thin film battery provides increased areal capacity on a single level without stacking multiple cells, using a substrate textured with angled openings, a current collector and cathode formed within those openings, and a lithium phosphorous oxynitride electrolyte deposited by physical vapor deposition.Assigned to Google Technology Holdings LLC, published 2010-03-23.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6982132B1 | Rechargeable thin film battery and method for making the same | 338 |
| 2 | US20080050656A1 | Thin film battery having textured layer | 46 |
| 3 | JP1990230662A | Lithium battery | 38 |
| 4 | CN111564620A | 一种利用碳纳米管连续体快速制备柔性电池的方法 | 15 |
| 5 | KR1020120040983A | Thin film battery contaning substrate with extention metal and multi-layered thin film battery module fabrica… | 14 |
| 6 | US20210008789A1 | 3D printed battery and method of 3D printing a battery | 10 |
| 7 | US20210167376A1 | 3D printed battery and method of making same | 10 |
| 8 | WO2019160810A1 | 3D printed battery and method of 3D printing a battery | 8 |
| 9 | WO2019012012A1 | 3D printed battery and method of making same | 8 |
| 10 | US7682733B2 | Thin film battery having textured layer | 7 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations; treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing decisions
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are put in context: a flat-to-declining filing curve, an assignee base concentrated at the top, and a technology mix that pushes activity into fabrication process claims rather than pure electrochemistry.
The filing curve has gone flat
Activity peaked at 8 records in 2018 and had fallen to zero by the 2022 midpoint. Combined with an incomplete most-recent year, this is not evidence the field is dead, but it does mean recent white space claims are less contested than the historical peak would suggest.
A small group holds most of the visible claim space
The top 5 assignees combine for 51.4% of all 35 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 85.7%. With only 19 companies in the full ranking, a new entrant is not up against hundreds of filers, but against a handful of well-established positions plus a long tail of single-filing entrants.
Fabrication process claims sit alongside core battery IPC
Coating and surface deposition (C23C) shows up in a fifth of records, and additive manufacturing, plastics shaping, and semiconductor-device classes each appear in single digits. This suggests that how the thin film is deposited and packaged is as contested a claim surface as the electrochemistry itself.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to flexible and thin-film batteries, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders in this dataset span device makers, materials suppliers and a research institution, with co-assignee activity limited to three pairs and recent-year momentum flat across the tracked names.
One assignee leads a field of 19
The leading assignee holds 6 of the 35 records in scope, with the fifth-place assignee at 3 and the tenth-place assignee at 2. The drop-off from leader to mid-table is steep, which is typical of a technically narrow, still-small corpus.
Co-assignment is rare and mostly internal
Only three co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, the strongest being two related BOE entities filing together twice. Cross-organisation co-filing between unrelated companies is essentially absent here.
No assignee shows recent-year momentum
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the leader, shows zero filings in the latest year. Read alongside the flat 2022 midpoint, this points to a corpus where visible activity has slowed industry-wide rather than shifted to a new leader.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Atomic Energy Council | 0 | — |
| Lyten Inc | 0 | — |
| University College Cork, National University of Ireland Cork | 0 | — |
| Honda Motor Co Ltd | 0 | — |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | 0 | — |
| Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd | 0 | — |
| BOE Technology Group Co Ltd | 0 | — |
| Motorola | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, a filing strategy, or scouting for partners.
Check freedom-to-operate against the cited leaders
US6982132B1 and US20080050656A1 carry the heaviest citation counts in this corpus and anchor much of the textured-layer and thin-film battery claim space; any new filing on substrate texturing or areal capacity gains should be checked against them first.
Run a freedom-to-operate checkMap the fabrication-process overlap
With C23C, B33Y and B29C classes touching 8.6-20.0% of records, a filing strategy focused purely on electrochemistry risks missing prior art sitting in coating and shaping claims.
Explore the IPC breakdownWatch for renewed filing activity
The flat 2022 midpoint and zero recent-year momentum across tracked assignees mean the field is quiet on paper, but publication lag means 2025-2026 filings are not yet fully visible.
Track filing trends over timeCommon questions on flexible and thin-film battery patents
Within this 35-record dataset, one assignee leads with 6 records, with the fifth-ranked assignee holding 3 and the tenth-ranked holding 2. The top 5 assignees combine for 51.4% of all records in scope, and the top 10 reach 85.7%, meaning a small group of filers accounts for most of the visible activity while a longer tail holds one or two records each. This concentration is typical of a technically narrow field rather than evidence that the leader has a dominant market position.
Filing peaked at 8 records in 2018 and had fallen to zero by the 2022 midpoint, with the most recent tracked year still partial. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years understate real filing activity, so a flat curve at the end of the chart should not be read as the field going quiet. Overall the trend from 2017 through 2026 reads as flat to declining rather than growing.
Every record in this dataset carries H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) by construction of the search, since the scope is defined by H01M10, H01M6 and H01M50. Beyond that core class, C23C (coating and surface deposition) appears in 20.0% of records, and B33Y (additive manufacturing), B01J, B29C, C01B, G01N and H01L each appear in 8.6-11.4% of records, reflecting that fabrication and testing methods are claimed alongside the core electrochemistry.
US7682733B2, assigned to Google Technology Holdings LLC, claims a monolithically integrated lithium thin film battery that increases areal capacity on a single level without stacking multiple cells. It relies on a substrate textured with angled openings between 10 and 80 degrees, with a current collector and cathode formed within those openings and a lithium phosphorous oxynitride electrolyte deposited by physical vapor deposition. Anyone designing a textured-substrate or areal-capacity approach to thin-film batteries should review this filing's specific geometry and deposition sequence before finalising a design.
The technology composition data shows most activity concentrated in core H01M battery claims and, secondarily, in coating and deposition (C23C) methods, while additive manufacturing, plastics shaping and semiconductor-device integration each remain in single-digit percentages of records. Sub-areas such as printed-battery additive manufacturing integration, solid electrolyte thin-film sealing at device scale, and bending-cycle capacity retention test methods show thinner overlap with the core claim space. These are reasonable areas to scout for underclaimed positions, though the small size of this corpus means the picture should be checked against a broader search before committing to a filing strategy.
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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.