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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/focused-ion-beam-circuit-edit-and-sample-prep-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Semiconductor Failure AnalysisFocused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep Patents
- 30.2% of all 1,479 records sit with the five leading assignees, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them.
- H01L and H01J together cover more filing activity than any other subclass pairing, but H10P, C23C and C25D show meaningfully thinner coverage.
- Filings grew 32% from 2021 to 2024 the last year publication lag allows a clean read on — 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in.
1,479
Published Records
30%
Top-5 Share of All Records
+32%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (44 records) with 2024 (58) — 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 1,479 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
Focused ion beam (FIB) circuit edit and sample preparation sits at the intersection of semiconductor failure analysis and materials characterisation. The claims in scope span milling endpoint detection, lamella preparation for cross-sectioning, gallium implantation damage mitigation, and metal deposition for circuit rewiring — the operational steps an analyst runs between decapsulating a die and getting a usable image or edited node. Plasma FIB and curtaining-artifact correction are recurring themes because both bear directly on cross-section quality, the practical measure of whether a sample is usable at all.
The 1,479 records in scope span 2015 through mid-2026, drawn from filings that name focused ion beam, circuit edit or lamella preparation alongside a specific technical problem such as endpoint detection, curtaining artifacts or plasma FIB. That pairing keeps the set narrow to the working technique rather than general ion-beam instrumentation.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The Data
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,479 records: the year-by-year filing count, and the IPC subclasses those filings carry.
A three-year growth run, then the publication-lag drop-off
Filings ran from 57 in 2017 to a peak of 118 in 2025, with the reliable comparison being 2021's 44 against 2024's 58 — a 32% rise over that span. Counts for 2025 and 2026 look lower only because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months; they are not evidence of a slowdown.
Semiconductor devices and discharge tubes dominate, deposition and plating trail
H01L (semiconductor devices) and H01J (electron and discharge tubes) each cover close to or above a quarter of the 1,479 records, reflecting how closely FIB work ties to device structure and to the beam column itself. G01N testing claims cover about a fifth of records. C23C coating, G03F photolithography, C25D electroplating and H05K assembly classes each cover under 12% of records — thinner ground where fewer claims compete for the same technique.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,479 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about focused ion beam circuit edit and sample prep and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
A representative claim and the most-cited prior art
Representative Filing
US6911832B2 — Focused ion beam endpoint detection using charge pulse detection electronics
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
A system and method for detecting a milling endpoint on a semiconductor sample by directing an ion beam from a focused ion beam (FIB) apparatus at the sample and using charge pulse detection electronics (CPDE) components to generate a distribution curve on a histogram display. A preferred configuration of the CPDE components includes a charge preamplifier, a pulse amplifier, a pulse shaper, and a multichannel analyzer (MCA).Filed by Texas Instruments, granted 2005-06-28 — a foundational endpoint-detection approach still cited in circuit-edit prior art searches today.
Most-cited records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7544398B1 | Controlled nano-doping of ultra thin films | 434 |
| 2 | US20070190543A1 | Coded Molecules for Detecting Target Analytes | 322 |
| 3 | US20020158342A1 | Nanofabrication | 316 |
| 4 | US7189435B2 | Nanofabrication | 294 |
| 5 | US6753538B2 | Electron beam processing | 238 |
| 6 | US20100165134A1 | Arrayed Imaging Systems And Associated Methods | 214 |
| 7 | US20020012825A1 | Fuel cell with patterned electrolyte/electrode interface | 211 |
| 8 | US20180095067A1 | Devices and methods for sample analysis | 205 |
| 9 | US20040175631A1 | Nanometer-scale engineered structures, methods and apparatus for fabrication thereof, and applications to mas… | 198 |
| 10 | US4717681A | Method of making a heterojunction bipolar transistor with SIPOS | 195 |
Citation counts accumulate over time and favour older filings; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the concentration, growth and citation data — useful before deciding where a new application would actually land.
Concentration
30.2% of 1,479
held by the top 5 assignees
The top of the field is dense, not closed
Five assignees hold 447 of the 1,479 records in scope, but the ranked list runs to 100 companies with a long tail of single-digit filers behind them. That combination — a dense top plus a wide, shallow tail — usually means the core endpoint-detection and lamella-prep techniques are well claimed, while adjacent process variants are still open to a specific, narrowly drafted filing.
Based on the 1,479-record assignee ranking
Growth
+32%
2021 to 2024 filings
Filing activity climbed steadily through the last complete years
Counts rose from 44 in 2021 to 58 in 2024, a 32% increase over three years, with 2025 posting the highest raw count on record at 118 before the expected publication-lag drop into 2026. Read the recent years as still filling in rather than as a peak already passed.
2021–2024 filing counts, publication-complete years
Technique spread
H01L 29.4% / C25D 5.5%
widest vs narrowest major subclass
Coating and plating claims are thinner than device and beam claims
H01L and H01J each attach to well over a quarter of the 1,479 records, while C23C coating, C25D electroplating and H05K assembly each sit under 12%. A record can carry more than one class, so these are not mutually exclusive buckets — but the gap suggests deposition-and-plating-specific claims face less crowded prior art than beam-column or device-structure claims.
Share of all 1,479 records; classes overlap
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to focused ion beam circuit edit and sample prep, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Who's Filing
Leaders, co-filers and where momentum sits now
The ranked list covers 100 companies counted in records, not a top-50 or top-100 cut — it is the full set the data endpoint returns.
Leader
247 records
single largest filer
One instrument maker sets the pace
The leading assignee's 247 records dwarf the fifth-place count of 31 and tenth-place count of 23 — a steep drop-off that is typical of instrument-and-technique fields where one company built the original commercial platform.
Leader vs 5th (31) and 10th (23) place
Co-filing
10 pairs
co-assignee relationships
Collaboration is limited and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pairing links the leading instrument maker with a named individual inventor rather than another company — a sign that most work here is filed solo rather than jointly developed.
Strongest pair recurs across multiple filings
Momentum
0 in latest year
for several former leaders
Recent-year activity has thinned across historic filers
Several of the assignees with the largest historical counts, including the leading instrument maker, show zero filings in the latest year with year-on-year drops of -100%. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as incomplete recent data rather than an exit from the space.
Latest-year filings by assignee, publication-lag affected
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Abbott Laboratories | 1 | — |
| FEI Company | 0 | -100% |
| SILVEBROOK KIA | 0 | -100% |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | — |
| Intel Corporation | 0 | — |
| TechInsights Inc. | 0 | — |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | 0 | -100% |
| Credit Systems Company | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, a new filing, or tracking a competitor.
Check freedom-to-operate against the dense top
Before drafting near endpoint detection or lamella preparation, run a focused search against the leading assignees' portfolios — that is where claim density is highest and overlap risk is greatest.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaDraft narrowly in the under-claimed branches
Curtaining-artifact correction and plasma FIB cross-section quality carry lower IPC coverage than the core device and beam classes, which leaves room for a tightly scoped, technique-specific claim.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack momentum, not just headline counts
Several top historical filers show zero activity in the latest year; confirm whether that reflects publication lag or an actual shift in strategy before assuming the field has consolidated.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on this landscape
One instrument maker leads the ranked list with 247 records, well ahead of the fifth-place assignee at 31 and tenth place at 23. That gap indicates a single company built much of the original commercial FIB circuit-edit platform and has kept filing around it since. The ranking runs to 100 companies total, though, so leadership at the top does not mean the field is closed — most of those 100 hold only a handful of records each.
Filings rose from 44 in 2021 to 58 in 2024, a 32% increase over that span, and 2025 posted the highest raw count on record at 118. The apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 figures is a publication-lag artifact — patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing, so the most recent one to two years always look artificially low. Judged on the last fully-settled years, the trend is upward, not flat or declining.
The two largest IPC subclasses are H01L (semiconductor devices), covering 29.4% of the 1,479 records, and H01J (electron and discharge tubes), covering 27.9%. G01N material analysis and testing covers about a fifth of records, reflecting the inspection side of the workflow. Coating (C23C), photolithography (G03F), electroplating (C25D) and printed-circuit classes (H05K) each cover under 12%, marking thinner, more specific claim territory around deposition and plating steps.
US6911832B2, assigned to Texas Instruments and granted in 2005, claims a specific configuration of charge pulse detection electronics — a charge preamplifier, pulse amplifier, pulse shaper and multichannel analyzer — used to detect a milling endpoint by generating a distribution curve on a histogram display. It blocks that particular electronic detection architecture and its histogram-based endpoint read-out, not endpoint detection generally. A new filing using a different detection principle, such as optical or secondary-electron-yield monitoring, would sit outside its claim scope.
The IPC composition data shows C23C coating, C25D electroplating, G03F photolithography and H05K assembly classes each attached to under 12% of the 1,479 records, well below the roughly 28-30% carried by the core H01L and H01J classes. Curtaining-artifact correction, plasma FIB cross-section quality control, and gallium implantation damage mitigation are named technical themes in the search scope that map onto this thinner coverage. A narrowly drafted claim in one of these specific technique areas faces less crowded prior art than a general endpoint-detection or lamella-prep filing.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit and Sample Prep covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.