Fastest
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 →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/gan-high-electron-mobility-transistors-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Power Semiconductor Modules · Patent LandscapeGaN High Electron Mobility Transistor Patents: Who Leads and Where Filings Are Heading
- Concentrated but not locked up. the top 5 assignees hold 25.0% of all 2,741 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 35.1% — leaving a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
- Filing has cooled from its 2017 peak of 226. but stayed active, with 2021's 138 filings declining 17% to 115 by 2024, the last year with complete publication coverage.
- Claims cluster hard in semiconductor device classes. H01L covers 89.5% of records and H10D 38.9%, while crystal growth (C30B) and amplifier circuits (H03F) sit under 4% each — a visible gap relative to device-structure claims.
2,741
Published Records
25%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-17%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (138 records) with 2024 (115) — 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 2,741 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 2,741 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine GaN HEMT or GaN power device terminology with claims addressing current collapse, dynamic on-resistance, normally-off operation, buffer trapping, p-gate structures, or substrate coupling. These are the reliability and threshold-control problems that separate a lab demonstration from a device that survives switching in a power converter.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 counts in any trend line are still filling in and should be read as provisional rather than a sign of decline.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors 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
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
10,000 free credits to start
The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,741-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filings rose to a 2017 peak, then settled into a lower plateau
Filings peaked at 226 in 2017. By 2021 the field was filing at 138 per year, falling 17% to 115 in 2024 — the most recent year with complete publication data. Years after 2024 will revise upward as later-filed applications publish.
Device-structure classes dominate; deposition and circuit classes trail
H01L (semiconductor devices) appears on 89.5% of records and H10D (semiconductor devices, general) on 38.9%, confirming that most claims sit at the device-structure level. Crystal growth (C30B, 3.8%), pulse/logic circuits (H03K, 3.4%), amplifiers (H03F, 2.8%) and coating/deposition (C23C, 2.4%) each cover a small minority of records, since a single record can carry multiple classes.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,741 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 GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about gan high electron mobility transistors and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
Representative filing and most-cited prior art
Representative Record
High electron mobility transistor manufacturing method and high electron mobility transistor (US20180197737A1)
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
Examples of a high electron mobility transistor manufacturing method includes forming a buffer layer including a nitride semiconductor doped with any one of carbon, iron, and magnesium on a substrate, forming a Schottky layer on the buffer layer, and irradiating the Schottky layer and the buffer layer with electrons or protons.Filed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, published 2018-07-12. The electron/proton irradiation step is a buffer-trapping mitigation approach distinct from the more common carbon-doping-only route.
Most-cited records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20060113549A1 | Light-emitting device | 4,364 |
| 2 | US20110140172A1 | Reverse side engineered iii-nitride devices | 546 |
| 3 | US20170358670A1 | Diamond on iii-nitride device | 476 |
| 4 | US20090072272A1 | Enhancement mode gallium nitride power devices | 308 |
| 5 | US20140264379A1 | III-Nitride P-Channel Field Effect Transistor with Hole Carriers in the Channel | 235 |
| 6 | US20070278518A1 | Enhancement-Mode III-N Devices, Circuits, and Methods | 201 |
| 7 | US9337278B1 | Gallium nitride on high thermal conductivity material device and method | 200 |
| 8 | US20100117118A1 | High electron mobility heterojunction device | 196 |
| 9 | US20070164322A1 | Methods of fabricating transistors including dielectrically-supported gate electrodes and related devices | 194 |
| 10 | US7915643B2 | Enhancement mode gallium nitride power devices | 174 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within this corpus; treat them as a measure of influence, not current 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 GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors 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
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
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 →Insights
What the data means for filing strategy
Three read-outs from the concentration, trend and classification figures above.
Concentration
25.0% of 2,741 records
top 5 assignees
Leadership is real but not exclusionary
The top 5 assignees combined hold a quarter of all records, and the top 10 barely more than a third. That leaves the majority of the dataset spread across a long tail — a structure where a well-drafted claim in an under-served sub-area still has room to stand, rather than one where a handful of players have sealed off the field.
Based on the 100-company ranking returned for this dataset.
Filing momentum
226 (2017) → 115 (2024)
peak vs. latest complete year
Activity has plateaued, not collapsed
Filing peaked in 2017 and declined 17% from 2021's 138 to 2024's 115 — a cooling from peak intensity, not a field in retreat. Given the 18-month publication lag, the true 2025-2026 volumes are not yet visible in this data.
2024 is the most recent year treated as complete.
Claim geography
89.5% vs. 3.8%
H01L vs. C30B share
Device claims crowd out process claims
Nearly nine in ten records touch H01L semiconductor-device claims, while crystal-growth process claims (C30B) appear on well under one in ten. Amplifier-circuit (H03F) and coating/deposition (C23C) classes show a similar pattern — claim activity sits overwhelmingly at the device-structure level rather than upstream materials or downstream circuit integration.
Class shares sum above 100% because records carry multiple IPC codes.
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 gan high electron mobility transistors, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors 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
Players
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The ranked leaders span device makers, foundries and materials suppliers, but recent-year momentum has cooled across nearly every name at the top.
Leader
233 records
single largest filer
A single leader well ahead of the rest
The top-ranked assignee holds 233 records, more than three times the fifth-place count of 65 and roughly five times tenth place at 46 — a steep drop-off that suggests one organisation built an early, broad filing programme rather than the field converging on a shared standard.
Ranking covers 100 companies by record count.
Recent momentum
0 in latest year
across several top assignees
Even leaders show a quiet latest year
Several of the most active historical filers show zero filings in the latest tracked year, with year-over-year drops of -100% for some. This is consistent with publication lag rather than withdrawal from the field — recent filings from these same organisations are likely still working through the pipeline.
Momentum reflects publication dates, not filing dates.
Collaboration
10 co-assignee pairs
strongest pairing: 34 shared records
Collaboration is limited and mostly intra-group
Only 10 co-assignee pairings appear in the dataset, and the strongest ones look like parent-subsidiary filing pairs rather than cross-company joint development — a sign that most GaN HEMT IP here originates from single-organisation R&D rather than formal partnerships.
Pairs counted by shared record filings.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Fujitsu Limited | 0 | -100% |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| NGK Insulators, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| HRL Laboratories, LLC | 0 | — |
| Enkris Semiconductor, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Sanken Electric Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Renesas Electronics Corporation | 0 | — |
| Raytheon Company | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors 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 analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking, or identifying acquisition targets.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 233 records against a field of 2,741, a targeted claim-scope review of that portfolio is a reasonable first filter before committing to a device-structure filing strategy.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaMap claim language in the under-claimed classes
C30B, H03F and C23C each cover under 4% of records — worth a closer read of what claim language does exist there before assuming the space is open.
Run a class-level claim search in EurekaTrack the 2025-2026 publication catch-up
Because recent years are still filling in, re-running this trend query in six to twelve months will reveal whether the 2021-2024 decline continues or reverses.
Set up a monitoring alert in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors 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 GaN HEMT patents
One assignee leads the ranked field with 233 records, well ahead of fifth place at 65 and tenth place at 46. The top 5 assignees together account for 25.0% of all 2,741 records in scope, and the top 10 for 35.1%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of 90 other ranked companies plus unranked single-filers, so leadership is real but not a lockout of the field.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 226 records and has since settled lower, with 2021's 138 filings falling 17% to 115 by 2024. 2024 is the most recent year with complete publication data; because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 do not yet reflect true filing volume and will likely revise upward. Read the recent plateau as a cooling from peak intensity rather than a field in decline.
This dataset was built around claims addressing current collapse, dynamic on-resistance, normally-off operation, buffer trapping, p-gate structures and substrate coupling — the reliability and threshold-control issues that determine whether a GaN device survives real switching conditions. The representative record in this set, for example, covers a buffer-layer doping and irradiation method aimed at buffer trapping. Most of this claim activity sits in device-structure classes (H01L, H10D) rather than in materials or circuit-integration classes.
The IPC composition shows device-structure classes dominating — H01L on 89.5% of records and H10D on 38.9% — while crystal-growth (C30B, 3.8%), amplifier (H03F, 2.8%) and coating/deposition (C23C, 2.4%) classes cover a small minority. That gap suggests process-level and circuit-integration claims around buffer trapping and substrate coupling are comparatively under-claimed relative to device-structure claims, though a specific freedom-to-operate check is needed before relying on this as a filing gap.
Not directly. Citation counts in this corpus favor older filings simply because they have had more years to accumulate citations, so the most-cited record here is a much older light-emitting device patent rather than a recent HEMT-specific filing. Use citation rank as a signal of historical influence on the field, and use the IPC composition and recent-year filing data to judge what is currently active.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors 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
Research GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole gan high electron mobility transistors 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.