Fusion Divertor Cooling Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (11 records) with 2024 (10) — 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 109 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Divertor cooling sits at the intersection of fusion reactor engineering and high-heat-flux materials science: the divertor is the component that absorbs the plasma’s exhaust energy, and how it is cooled decides whether a reactor design survives sustained operation. This landscape covers 109 published records filed between 2015 and the July 2026 data cut-off, spanning reactor-level architecture claims through to the alloy, welding and powder-metallurgy techniques used to build and bond the cooling structure itself.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend here are undercounted and will fill in as more applications publish. The picture below should be read as a working landscape as of the data cut-off, not a final tally.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The 109 records in scope span 2015 to the July 2026 cut-off, with publication lag meaning the most recent one to two years are still filling in. The composition chart below reflects how divertor cooling work is actually classified across fusion reactor architecture, plasma physics, and the materials and joining disciplines that keep hardware alive under heat flux.
Filing activity peaked in 2021 and has held near that level
Filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 11 in 2021. Using the last fully comparable years, 2021's 11 filings compare to 10 in 2024 — a -9% change over that span, essentially flat rather than a clear decline. Years after 2024 are undercounted because of publication lag and should not be read as a drop-off.
Reactor architecture dominates; materials and joining are thinner
G21B (fusion reactors) appears in 75.2% of the 109 records, far ahead of H05H (plasma & particle accelerators, 17.4%) and G21D (nuclear power plants, 9.2%). The manufacturing-adjacent classes — B23K welding/brazing (8.3%), C22C alloys (7.3%), G21G conversion of nuclei (7.3%), G21H radiation energy use (7.3%) and B22F powder metallurgy (6.4%) — sit well below that, since a single record can carry several classes at once.
Shares are the percentage of the 109 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Fusion Materials & Components: Fusion Divertor Cooling Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe records anchoring this landscape
Divertor filtering element for a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor
A divertor for a TOKAMAK nuclear fusion reactor, having at least one target element for intercepting the path of contaminating particles from a toroidal channel in which plasma is formed and confined; and at least one grille structure interposed between a catch region, for catching the contaminating particles, and the input of a plasma purifying device. The grille structure is fitted with a layered structure of threadlike felt material facing the catch region and through which flows a mixture of deuterium, tritium, helium and impurities flowing through the grille structure.Filed by the European Community in 2002; now the second most-cited record in this dataset at 42 citations, behind only US5182075A.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5182075A | Nuclear fusion reactor | 109 |
| 2 | US20020172316A1 | Divertor filtering element for a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor; divertor employing the filtering element; an… | 42 |
| 3 | US5410574A | Internal component of fusion reactor | 35 |
| 4 | CN117457240A | 一种磁约束聚变反应堆 | 34 |
| 5 | US20240290505A1 | Magnetic confinement fusion reactor | 29 |
| 6 | JP2009192264A | Method for manufacturing high-temperature load equipment for jointing carbon material and copper alloy materi… | 27 |
| 7 | CN107507651A | 一种适用于未来托卡马克聚变堆的双冷回路偏滤器结构 | 24 |
| 8 | CN112420221A | 一种便于正面遥操作维护的聚变堆偏滤器结构 | 21 |
| 9 | CN105551530A | 一种基于高温熔盐冷却的聚变堆钨偏滤器结构设计 | 20 |
| 10 | CN113035378A | 一种适用于托克马克核聚变装置的直角封闭全钨偏滤器 | 19 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older records accumulate citations simply by having been public longer, so treat this as a signal of influence rather than current 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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Three signals stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC composition are read together: where control already sits, how stable the pace of filing has been, and which technical layer is still open.
A small group controls the architecture layer
The leading assignee alone holds 18 records, and the top five combined reach 54 records — 49.5% of the 109 records in scope. The top ten extend that to 73.4%, meaning roughly a quarter of the field is a long tail of occasional filers rather than repeat programmes.
Activity has plateaued near its 2021 peak
Filings climbed from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 11 in 2021, and the 2024 figure of 10 keeps activity close to that peak rather than falling away. Numbers after 2024 are understated by publication lag and should not yet be read as decline.
Reactor architecture dominates the classification
G21B fusion reactors covers three-quarters of records, dwarfing H05H plasma & particle accelerators at 17.4% and G21D nuclear power plants at 9.2%. Manufacturing-adjacent classes — welding/brazing, alloys, powder metallurgy — each sit in the 6-9% range, the thinner layer where claim space is more open.
Most filers work alone, not in partnership
Only 7 co-assignee pairs appear across the full 109-record set, and the strongest pair links a holding company to an individual inventor. Joint filing is the exception here, which means partnership-based filings in the thinner materials classes would stand out rather than compete with an existing cluster.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fusion materials & components: fusion divertor cooling patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| SU N Energy Holdings Ltd. | PAREKH SUNEEL NAVNITDAS | 6 |
| SU N Energy Holdings Ltd. | SUNEEL NAVNITDAS PAREKH | 2 |
| Hefei Institute of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences | Beijing Antai Zhongke Metal Materials Co., Ltd. | 1 |
| Toshiba Corporation | Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute | 1 |
| European Union, represented by the European Commission | MATERA ROBERTO | 1 |
| European Union, represented by the European Commission | CAZZOLA CARLO | 1 |
| European Union, represented by the European Commission | BOSCARY JEAN | 1 |
With only 7 co-assignee pairs across 109 records, most divertor cooling patents are filed by a single assignee acting alone, leaving joint R&D-to-IP filings comparatively rare in this field.
Where to take this analysis
The figures above establish the shape of the field. The next step is usually to check a specific design or filing plan against the underlying claims rather than the aggregate numbers.
Check claim overlap before filing
Run a proposed divertor cooling design against the highest-cited records, especially the filtering-element and internal-component claims that anchor this landscape, to see where a new filing would need to differentiate.
Search prior art in EurekaTrack the concentrated leaders
With half of all records held by five assignees, monitoring their ongoing filing activity is a more reliable early-warning signal than watching the field average.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaExplore the thinner technology branches
Powder metallurgy, alloy composition and welding/brazing claims sit well below the dominant reactor-architecture class, and that gap is where a materials-focused filing has more room to move.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about the divertor cooling patent landscape
Filing in this space is concentrated: the leading assignee in the ranking holds 18 records, and the top five combined account for 54 records, or 49.5% of the 109 records in scope. The top ten together reach 73.4% of all records, which means roughly a quarter of the field is spread across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants. This is a pattern to watch rather than a permanent hierarchy, since fusion hardware programmes shift assignee activity quickly as designs move from lab to demonstration scale.
Filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 11 in 2021, and comparing 2021 to 2024 — the most recent year that can be treated as complete — shows 10 filings, a -9% change, essentially a plateau rather than a clear slide. Any apparent drop in 2025 or 2026 numbers is an artefact of publication lag, since filed applications typically take about 18 months to publish. Read the trend as sustained, high-plateau activity rather than either accelerating growth or a genuine decline.
G21B (fusion reactors) covers 75.2% of the 109 records in scope and is the dominant classification, followed by H05H (plasma & particle accelerators) at 17.4% and G21D (nuclear power plants) at 9.2%. Materials and manufacturing classes — B23K welding/brazing, C22C alloys, G21G conversion of nuclei, G21H radiation energy use, and B22F powder metallurgy — each sit between 6% and 9% of records. Because a single patent can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures are not mutually exclusive and add up to more than the record total.
US20020172316A1 claims a tokamak divertor fitted with a grille structure of layered felt material positioned between the particle catch region and a plasma-purifying device, through which a deuterium-tritium-helium-impurity mixture flows. It is the second most-cited record in the dataset at 42 citations, so a meaningful share of later filings had to draft around its filtering-element language. It does not, however, cover cooling-channel geometry, coolant chemistry, or armour material selection, which remain open design space outside its granted scope.
The thinner classes — B22F powder metallurgy (6.4% of 109 records) and G21G conversion of nuclei (7.3%) — carry far fewer filings than the dominant G21B reactor-architecture cluster (75.2%), suggesting component-manufacturing detail is less claimed than whole-reactor integration. Only 7 co-assignee pairs exist across the entire dataset, indicating collaborative filing is rare and most applicants file solo. A first claim framed around a specific manufacturing process or joint geometry, rather than reactor-level architecture, is more likely to sit clear of the most-cited prior art.
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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.