GAA BEOL Interconnect Patent Snapshot 2026
The GAA BEOL interconnect patent space is highly concentrated, with IBM controlling the dominant position and a small cohort of established semiconductor firms making up virtually the entire corpus. The field is in a growth phase on a multi-year basis, though annual volume eased from its 2023 peak and the most recent filing years remain understated by publication lag.
IBM leads a tightly held, early-stage corpus
International Business Machines Corporation holds the leading position in GAA BEOL interconnect patenting with 6 patent families, placing it well ahead of Intel Corporation at 3 patent families. The remaining applicants — IBM United Kingdom Ltd, Synopsys, TSMC, Marvell Asia, and Tokyo Electron — each hold a single patent family.
The top five filers collectively account for 87% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, signaling extreme concentration. There is no meaningful second tier; the gap between IBM and every other applicant is substantial, and entrants beyond the top two hold minimal positions.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | International Business Machines Corporation | 6 | |
| 2 | Intel Corporation | 3 | |
| 3 | IBM United Kingdom Ltd Intellectual Property Department | 2 | |
| 4 | Synopsys Inc | 1 | |
| 5 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd | 1 | |
| 6 | Marvell Asia Pte Ltd | 1 | |
| 7 | Tokyo Electron Ltd | 1 |
IBM’s dominance, reinforced by a transatlantic collaboration between its US and UK intellectual property units, suggests that a single corporate ecosystem has defined the early technical framework for this intersection of GAA architecture and back-end-of-line interconnect design. Other participants are effectively observers at this stage.
Filing counts for 2024–2025 are understated due to standard patent publication lag of 18–24 months; apparent flatness in those years should not be read as a slowdown. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Accelerating multi-year growth anchored in core semiconductor classifications
The annual filing trend and technology composition charts together show a nascent but expanding field, with activity clustering tightly in semiconductor device classifications and a handful of adjacent branches receiving only sparse coverage.
Annual filing trend
Filings were negligible through 2018, with meaningful activity beginning in 2019 and stepping up through 2023, which marks the visible annual peak at 4 patent families. The three-year recent window shows 75% growth over the prior comparable period, confirming multi-year expansion. Counts for 2024 and 2025 are suppressed by publication lag and should not be interpreted as a genuine decline.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01L (Semiconductor devices) is visible in the IPC mix and appears across the full corpus, reflecting the foundational role of device-level interconnect engineering. H10D (Semiconductor devices, general) is the second most cited classification. Memory-adjacent classes H10B and G11C, as well as nanotechnology branch B82Y, appear with limited frequency, marking them as adjacent rather than core areas of current activity.
↗ 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.
Self-aligned backside contact in nanosheet without…
A semiconductor structure is presented including a backside contact of a nanosheet transistor positioned on a silicon (Si) layer of a wafer and a dielectric liner disposed between the backside contact and the Si layer such that the dielectric liner is located below gate spacers of the nanosheet transistor. The backside contact is closer to a backside of the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Method to reduce parasitic resistance for CFET dev… | 9 |
| 2 | GATE-ALL-AROUND-VORRICHTUNGEN MIT SELBSTAUSGERICHT… | 3 |
| 3 | Scaled 2t dram | 2 |
| 4 | Self-aligned backside contact in nanosheet without… | 2 |
| 5 | Backside Power Distribution Network and Signal Lin… | 2 |
| 6 | Strained semiconductor on insulator (SSOI) based g… | 1 |
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.
International Business Machines Corporation
IBM holds 6 patent families, the largest portfolio in this space by a significant margin. Its technology emphasis spans H01L 23 (semiconductor device packaging and interconnects), H01L 21 (semiconductor fabrication processes), and H10D 30 (general semiconductor device structures) — a combination that covers both process integration and physical interconnect design at the BEOL level. Momentum data shows IBM as a new entrant to this specific filing intersection, consistent with the field’s early-growth stage overall.
patent families: 6Intel Corporation
Intel holds 3 patent families and concentrates its technology filings across H01L 21, H10D 30, and H10D 62, reflecting an emphasis on transistor-level and general device integration concerns that connect GAA channel engineering to back-end routing. Intel’s momentum is also classified as a new entrant, indicating that its GAA BEOL interconnect-specific filings are a recent strategic addition rather than an established programme.
patent families: 3Frequently asked questions
The current corpus stands at 13 patent families in scope, reflecting an early-growth field that began generating meaningful filings from 2019 onward.
International Business Machines Corporation leads with 6 patent families, nearly double the count of the next-ranked filer, Intel Corporation, which holds 3 patent families.
The field is in a Growth stage. The recent three-year filing window is 75% above the prior comparable window, confirming multi-year expansion, though annual volume has eased from its 2023 peak and recent years are further understated by publication lag.
The United States leads with 5 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) and WIPO (PCT) at 3 records each. Germany and Taiwan each account for 1 record.
H01L (Semiconductor devices) covers the full corpus and is the visible classification. H10D (Semiconductor devices, general) is the second most represented branch, with H10B (memory device manufacture), B82Y (nanotechnology), and G11C (static and digital memories) appearing at much lower frequencies.
The only documented co-applicant relationship is between International Business Machines Corporation and IBM United Kingdom Ltd Intellectual Property Department, covering 2 joint filings. No cross-company collaborations are recorded in the current evidence.
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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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