GAA Power-Performance Efficiency Patent Snapshot 2026
Gate-all-around power-performance efficiency IP is tightly concentrated among a small group of leading chip designers and foundries, with Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, and TSMC together commanding the top three positions. The field expanded sharply on a multi-year basis though annual volume has eased from its 2022 peak, and the United States is the dominant filing jurisdiction.
Advanced Micro Devices leads a highly concentrated field
Advanced Micro Devices holds the top position among the ranked applicants, followed closely by Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The top five filers account for 80% of the combined total of the ranked applicants visible in this query, signalling a sharply oligopolistic visible assignee structure.
The tier gap between the top three players and the rest of the field is pronounced. Apple and Qualcomm share the fourth rank, and the remaining applicants — including IBM, University of Notre Dame, and several Indian engineering institutions — hold only single-digit patent records each.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Advanced Micro Devices | 13 | |
| 2 | Intel Corporation | 11 | |
| 3 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) | 7 | |
| 4 | Apple Inc. | 4 | |
| 5 | Qualcomm | 4 | |
| 6 | International Business Machines Corporation | 3 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | University of Notre Dame | 2 | |
| 8 | DR SUBHA SUBRAMANIAM | 1 | |
| 9 | IBM United Kingdom Ltd Intellectual Property Department | 1 | |
| 10 | P S R Engineering College | 1 | |
| 11 | VIT-AP University | 1 | |
| 12 | CVR College of Engineering | 1 |
The dominance of AMD, Intel, and TSMC reflects the capital-intensive and IP-sensitive nature of GAA transistor architecture, where process leadership and circuit-level power optimisation are tightly coupled. New entrants from academia and smaller institutions appear, but their footprint remains marginal relative to the incumbents.
The most recent 18–24 months of data are subject to publication lag and will appear under-counted until filings fully publish; conclusions about late-period activity should be read with that caveat. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A 2022 surge reshaped the field; semiconductor device classes dominate the technology mix
The annual filing trend reveals a step-change in activity from 2022 onward, while the IPC composition chart shows that semiconductor device classes account for the large majority of the technical coverage.
Annual filing trend
Filings were negligible before 2019 and climbed steadily to a sharp peak in 2022, consistent with industry-wide transition from FinFET to GAA process nodes entering patent maturity. Post-2022 annual volumes have moderated, but the three-year recent window sits well above the prior three-year window — a 243% multi-year growth rate. Data for 2024–2026 should be read as preliminary given publication lag.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01L (semiconductor devices) is the overwhelmingly visible IPC branch, reflecting the device-physics and fabrication focus of the corpus. B82Y (nanotechnology applications) forms a secondary cluster, consistent with nanosheet and nanowire channel architectures. H10D (semiconductor devices, general) and C23C (coating and surface deposition) are present in smaller quantities, pointing to adjacent process and materials coverage.
↗ 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.
Gate-all-around (GAA) transistor with stacked nano…
Strained gate-all-around semiconductor devices formed on globally or locally isolated substrates are described. For example, a semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate. An insulating structure is disposed above the semiconductor substrate. A three-dimensional channel region is disposed above the insulating structure. Source and drain regions… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vertical gate-all-around field effect transistors … | 139 |
| 2 | Strained gate-all-around semiconductor devices for… | 22 |
| 3 | Methods for fabricating strained gate-all-around s… | 17 |
| 4 | Group iii-nitride compound heterojunction tunnel f… | 12 |
| 5 | Leakage Reduction in Gate-All-Around Devices | 9 |
| 6 | Strained gate-all-around semiconductor devices for… | 6 |
| 7 | Vertical gate-all-around field effect transistors | 6 |
| 8 | Leakage reduction in gate-all-around devices | 5 |
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.
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices holds 13 patent records, the highest count in the corpus. Its technology focus spans H01L 21 (semiconductor device fabrication), H01L 27 (integrated circuit arrays), and H01L 29 (transistor and diode structures), indicating broad coverage across both process and circuit integration layers. Momentum is classified as a new entrant to this corpus, with 11 of its records filed in the recent window — pointing to a concentrated and recent IP-building campaign.
13 patent recordsIntel Corporation
Intel holds 11 patent records and is the only top-two player with a meaningful B82Y 10 (nanotechnology applications) presence alongside H01L 21 and H01L 29, reflecting its public emphasis on nanosheet and nanoribbon channel architectures. Intel’s momentum is also classified as a new entrant to this corpus, consistent with the field’s emergence from 2022 onward. Its nanotechnology sub-class coverage is a point of differentiation from AMD’s predominantly H01L-only footprint.
11 patent recordsFrequently asked questions
The corpus covers 34 patent families in scope. The applicant ranking is expressed in patent records, which can exceed the family count because a single family may be filed across multiple jurisdictions.
Advanced Micro Devices holds the top position with 13 patent records, followed by Intel with 11 and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. with 7. These three together represent the first tier of a highly concentrated field.
The field is in a Growth stage. The recent three-year filing window reflects 243% growth relative to the prior three-year window. Annual volume, however, has eased from its 2022 peak, so the rate of new activity is moderating even as cumulative IP continues to accumulate.
The United States leads with 24 patent records, followed by India and WIPO PCT filings with 6 each, Europe (EPO) and Israel with 4 each, Singapore with 3, and Germany with 1. The US-PCT-EPO axis covers the primary commercial and manufacturing markets.
The most-cited work describes vertical gate-all-around field effect transistors, accumulating 139 citations — far above the second-most-cited document on strained gate-all-around semiconductor devices at 22 citations. Leakage reduction in GAA devices and Group III-nitride heterojunction tunnel field-effect transistors are also among the highly referenced works.
Recorded co-filing activity is minimal. The only identified co-applicant relationship is between International Business Machines Corporation and IBM United Kingdom Ltd Intellectual Property Department — an intra-corporate arrangement. No cross-company or industry-academia joint filings are observed among the visible players.
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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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