Fluorinated Etch Gas Alternatives Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Top 5 filers hold 50.3% of the field. 541 of 1,075 records in scope sit with just five assignees — this is a concentrated landscape, not a fragmented one.
- Filing rose 22% from 2021 to 2024. 32 records in 2021 grew to 39 in 2024, the last year with a complete publication picture.
- C09K materials claims cover over half the field. 563 of 1,075 records touch this subclass alone, with refrigeration (F25B) and lubricants (C10M, C10N) close behind.
Filing growth compares 2021 (32 records) with 2024 (39) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,075 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Fluorinated etch gas alternatives sit at the intersection of semiconductor process chemistry and refrigerant/lubricant science, because many of the low-global warming potential (GWP) fluorocarbon compositions developed for cooling and cleaning applications share the same molecular backbones as those explored for plasma etch. This dataset spans 1,075 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from claims and descriptions referencing global warming potential, etch rate parity, byproduct formation, abatement efficiency, chamber compatibility and supply availability.
The picture that emerges is not a niche etch-gas story on its own — it is a broader low-GWP fluorochemical landscape where refrigeration and lubricant claims outnumber pure etch-process claims, and where a small number of chemical majors hold a majority of the filings.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,075 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 56 in 2017 to a peak of 75 in 2019, before settling into a mid-30s range through the early 2020s. From 2021 (32) to 2024 (39) — the last year with a largely complete publication record — filings grew 22%. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent tail should not be read as a slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C09K (materials for miscellaneous applications) appears in 52.4% of the 1,075 records, the single largest subclass. F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps) follows at 30.3%, and lubricant-related classes C10M and C10N cover 22.8% and 13.2% respectively. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to well over 100% — they show where claim density sits, not a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,075 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Fluorinated Etch Gas Alternatives with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about fluorinated etch gas alternatives and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in the field
Centrifugal compressor for use with low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant
A centrifugal compressor configured for low-GWP refrigerant, with an impeller whose blades carry a fully nonlinear, quasi-orthogonal cross-section. The hub-side blade angle varies along the streamwise direction so it is largest nearer the leading edge than the trailing edge, and the casing is shaped to work with the low-GWP refrigerant's flow characteristics.Filed by Daikin Industries, this record illustrates how low-GWP chemistry claims extend into mechanical hardware — compressor and casing geometry tuned to a specific refrigerant class, not just the chemical composition itself.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5759430A | Clean, tropodegradable agents with low ozone depletion and global warming potentials to protect against fires… | 208 |
| 2 | WO2009015317A1 | Improved method for producing 2-chloro-3,3,3,-trifluoropropene (HCFC-1233xf) | 202 |
| 3 | WO2015186670A1 | Composition for heat cycle system and heat cycle system | 185 |
| 4 | US6300378B1 | Tropodegradable bromine-containing halocarbon additives to decrease flammability of refrigerants foam blowing… | 169 |
| 5 | US5900185A | Tropodegradable bromine-containing halocarbon additives to decrease flammability of refrigerants, foam blowin… | 168 |
| 6 | WO2008027555A2 | Method for circulating selected heat transfer fluids through a closed loop cycle | 156 |
| 7 | US6024889A | Chemically active fire suppression composition | 132 |
| 8 | US20090030244A1 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING 2-CHLORO-3,3,3-TRIFLUOROPROPENE (HCFC-1233xf) | 125 |
| 9 | WO2015125885A1 | Composition for heat cycle systems, and heat cycle system | 94 |
| 10 | US7795480B2 | Method for producing 2-chloro-3,3,3,-trifluoropropene (HCFC-1233xf) | 90 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings, since they have had more time to accumulate citations — read this table as a map of influential prior art, not a ranking of current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the records are aggregated by assignee, year and IPC class.
The top tier is narrow
Five assignees hold just over half of all records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 64.9%. New entrants filing broad compositional claims in this space are filing into occupied ground; the more open routes tend to sit in application-specific hardware or formulation niches rather than core chemistry.
Activity is building, not fading
Filings climbed from 32 in 2021 to 39 in 2024, the last year with a mostly complete publication record. The dip visible in 2025–2026 reflects publication lag rather than a real drop in filing activity, since publication typically trails filing by around 18 months.
Refrigerant and lubricant chemistry dominates
C09K, F25B, C10M and C10N together account for the bulk of claim density, meaning most of this landscape's activity is about refrigerant and lubricant compositions rather than semiconductor process integration specifically. Etch-adjacent claims exist but sit inside a much larger low-GWP fluorochemical corpus.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fluorinated etch gas alternatives, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. | Showa Tansan Co., Ltd. | 21 |
| Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. | Toyota Tsusho Corporation | 16 |
| Honeywell International Inc. | Earth Chemical Co., Ltd. | 12 |
| Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. | Denso Corporation | 10 |
| Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. | Toyota Industries Corporation | 9 |
| AGC Inc. | Sony Group Corporation | 5 |
| AGC Inc. | ULVAC, Inc. | 5 |
| AGC Inc. | Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | 5 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairing linked to joint filings between a petroleum resource development company and a carbonic acid gas producer — a pattern consistent with feedstock or gas-supply partnerships rather than pure R&D collaboration.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranked leaders span chemical majors with refrigerant and lubricant portfolios; recent-year momentum for several of the largest filers has slowed to zero or near-zero, which is consistent with publication lag rather than withdrawal from the field.
A single filer well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 196 records, more than double the fifth-place filer's 49. That gap signals a company that has built a broad compositional and application patent base rather than a narrow defensive position.
A steep drop-off after the top ten
Tenth place holds 22 records, less than half of fifth place's 49. Below the top ten, the ranking spreads across a long tail of the remaining 90 companies, many with single-digit filing counts.
Recent-year counts are thin across the board
Several of the largest historical filers show zero or near-zero activity in the latest year, including year-over-year drops as steep as -100% and -80%. This reflects the ~18-month publication lag more than a genuine pullback, and should not be read as leaders exiting the space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| The Chemours Company FC, LLC | 1 | -80% |
| AGC Inc. | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Owens Corning Intellectual Capital, LLC | 0 | — |
| Daikin Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| RPL Holdings Ltd. | 0 | — |
| The Lubrizol Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated core and a thinner periphery — the next steps depend on whether you are filing, licensing or freedom-to-operate checking.
Map claim boundaries around the top filers
With 50.3% of records held by five assignees, a freedom-to-operate review should start with their core compositional claims before looking at the long tail.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches
Byproduct abatement, chamber compatibility testing and supply-chain sourcing claims show thinner density than core refrigerant chemistry — worth monitoring for freshly filed white space.
Set up a monitoring search in EurekaWatch for the 2025–2026 publication catch-up
Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, the current partial-year figures will fill in; re-checking this view in a future quarter will sharpen the recent-momentum picture.
Run this landscape again in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
In this dataset, the term covers compositions and processes claimed around low global warming potential (GWP) fluorochemicals, searched against terms like etch rate parity, byproduct formation, abatement efficiency and chamber compatibility. Many of these records are not semiconductor-etch-specific; the same molecular families are claimed for refrigeration, lubricant and cleaning applications, so the corpus is broader than pure fab-process chemistry. Anyone scoping a freedom-to-operate search should expect to find refrigerant and lubricant claims alongside etch-adjacent ones.
The ranking is concentrated: the top five assignees combined hold 50.3% of the 1,075 records in scope, and the leader alone holds 196 records against 49 for the fifth-place filer. This is not an evenly spread field — a small group of established chemical and refrigerant manufacturers account for the bulk of activity, with a long tail of smaller filers below the top ten. Checking the leader's full claim set is the sensible starting point for any competitive or licensing analysis.
Filing grew 22% from 32 records in 2021 to 39 in 2024, the most recent year with a largely complete publication picture. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual drop in activity. Treat the most recent one to two years in any patent trend as understated until later publications catch up.
Materials claims under IPC class C09K appear in 52.4% of the 1,075 records, the largest single subclass, followed by refrigeration and heat pump claims under F25B at 30.3% and lubricant-related classes C10M and C10N at 22.8% and 13.2% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these figures overlap rather than partition the field. The pattern shows that low-GWP fluorochemical patenting is driven at least as much by refrigerant and lubricant applications as by semiconductor process needs.
Compared with the dense compositional claims held by top filers, sub-areas like byproduct abatement kinetics, chamber-material compatibility testing, and supply-chain feedstock sourcing show thinner filing density in this dataset. These are process-and-measurement-adjacent claims rather than core chemistry, which is exactly where new entrants can build a defensible position without competing directly with the concentrated top tier. A first claim there would likely tie a specific measurement or abatement method to a defined chemistry class rather than claiming the composition itself.
Research Fluorinated Etch Gas Alternatives in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole fluorinated etch gas alternatives corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.