Gas Sensor Durability Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filing has cooled since 2019. the peak year for durability-specific filings was 2019 at 50 records, and by 2022 the annual count had roughly halved to 18 — this is not a growth market on paper, though the 2026 count is partial.
- G01N dominates the IPC mix. 582 of 967 records sit in material analysis and testing (G01N), versus 113 in semiconductor devices (H01L) — durability claims are being written as measurement-and-materials problems, not device architecture problems.
- The US is the primary filing venue. 366 records were filed at the USPTO against 149 at the EPO and 101 via WIPO/PCT — a durability claim that only covers Europe or Asia is covering a minority of the disclosed art.
Filing growth compares 2021 (16 records) with 2024 (12) — 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 967 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This review tracks patent families where gas sensors — including chemiresistive and gas-detection variants — are claimed alongside specific environmental durability language: humidity resistance, temperature stability, or poisoning resistance. The search deliberately excludes generic gas-sensing filings that do not address one of these failure modes directly, so the corpus is a durability-specific subset rather than the whole gas-sensor field.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the July 2026 data cut-off. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the last one to two years in any trend chart will read lower than the true filing rate once the backlog clears.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 967-family corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the durability claims.
A market past its filing peak
Annual filings rose to 50 in 2019, then declined toward 18 by the 2022 midpoint and further to 7 by 2026 (partial year). Read the recent years cautiously — publication lag means 2025 and 2026 will both revise upward as later-filed applications publish.
Materials and testing carry the claims
G01N (material analysis and testing) accounts for 582 of 967 records, more than five times the next subclass, H01L (semiconductor devices) at 113. Smaller but consistent clusters sit in A61B (diagnosis and surgery, 74), G01K (temperature measurement, 55), G01J (radiation and light measurement, 52), H01M (batteries and fuel cells, 52), H10K (organic semiconductors, 46) and C23C (coating and surface deposition, 43) — durability engineering is spread across measurement, coating and adjacent device fields rather than concentrated in one.
Shares are the percentage of the 967 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Gas Sensor Environmental Durability with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about gas sensor environmental durability and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Gas sensor with humidity-resistant metal-oxide sensing structure (Niterra)
The present invention provides a gas sensor having excellent humidity resistance even if used in a high temperature and high humidity atmosphere. According to the present invention, a gas sensor is comprised of: a silicon substrate; a metal-oxide semiconductor portion comprised mainly of SnO2 and formed on the substrate; and a catalytic portion comprised of Pd and dispersed on a surface of the metal-oxide semiconductor portion, wherein the metal-oxide semiconductor portion and the catalytic portion constitute a gas sensing portion. Furthermore, an insulating portion comprised mainly of SiO2 is formed dispersedly on a surface of the gas sensing portion.Filed by Niterra Co., Ltd. (formerly NGK Spark Plug), published 2006-08-24 as US20060185420A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080170982A1 | Fabrication and Application of Nanofiber Ribbons and Sheets and Twisted and Non-Twisted Nanofiber Yarns | 1,266 |
| 2 | US6503831B2 | Method of forming an electronic device | 680 |
| 3 | US20120187305A1 | Microchannel plate detector and methods for their fabrication | 557 |
| 4 | US20090105605A1 | Apparatus and method for measuring biologic parameters | 530 |
| 5 | US20180011052A1 | Silicon carbide based field effect gas sensor for high temperature applications | 391 |
| 6 | WO2007015710A2 | The fabrication and application of nanofiber ribbons and sheets and twisted and non-twisted nanofiber yarns | 383 |
| 7 | US20020105080A1 | Method of forming an electronic device | 350 |
| 8 | US20150094914A1 | Method and apparatus for biological evaluation | 318 |
| 9 | US20070106172A1 | Apparatus and method for measuring biologic parameters | 261 |
| 10 | US6713389B2 | Method of forming an electronic device | 255 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; treat this as a signal of influence on the field, not of which claims are commercially current.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the corpus that matter more than the raw counts.
Durability filing has been declining since the 2019 peak
The corpus peaked at 50 records in 2019, was already down to 18 by the 2022 midpoint, and sits at 7 for the partial 2026 year. Publication lag means the true 2025–2026 numbers will revise up somewhat, but the multi-year direction from 2019 onward is a decline, not a plateau.
Material-analysis claims dominate the IPC mix
Six in ten records classify under G01N, material analysis and testing — the durability problem is being solved and claimed primarily as a materials and measurement question, with H01L semiconductor-device claims a distant second at 113.
The US is the dominant receiving office by a wide margin
USPTO filings outnumber EPO filings by more than two to one, and WIPO/PCT filings by more than three to one. A durability portfolio strategy built only around European or PCT coverage is missing the majority of disclosed prior art in this space.
Influence is concentrated in a handful of older filings
The most-cited record in the corpus carries 1,266 citations, several times the count of the next most-cited filings — a pattern typical of foundational, older art that newer filings must still work around or cite past.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to gas sensor environmental durability, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
Assignee activity in this corpus shows established sensor and materials organisations holding position, but recent-year momentum is flat across the named assignees below — none show fresh filings in the latest year, consistent with the overall filing decline.
Named leaders show no latest-year activity
Across the assignees with the strongest historical presence in this corpus — including MSA Technology, Mine Safety Appliances, University of Texas System, Toshiba, NGK Insulators and Robert Bosch — recent-year momentum recorded is zero. That is consistent with the broader decline in annual filings, not necessarily an exit from the field.
Co-filing is limited and mostly bilateral
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the corpus. The strongest pairing, Smith Allan L with Wadso Ingemar, recurs across 9 records; institutional pairings such as University of Texas System with CSIRO appear at lower frequency (4 and 2 records).
Coverage decisions concentrate on three offices
The bulk of filing activity clusters in the United States, Europe and the WIPO/PCT route, with Japan, Canada and Australia trailing well behind. A freedom-to-operate check limited to those three primary offices will catch most of the disclosed art.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| MSA Technology | 0 | — |
| Mine Safety Appliances | 0 | — |
| Board of Regents, The University of Texas System | 0 | — |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | — |
| NGK Insulators, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Robert Bosch GmbH | 0 | — |
| ABREU MARCIO MARC | 0 | — |
| SMITH ALLAN L | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to a mature, materials-heavy claim space with declining filing volume — the practical next step is checking specific claim language against the sub-areas that remain thinner.
Map claims against the under-claimed branches
Run the specific sub-areas identified above — poisoning-resistant coatings, SiC high-temperature sensing, organic-semiconductor durability — against your own technical roadmap to see which are genuinely open versus merely low-volume.
Explore with Patsnap EurekaCheck freedom-to-operate against the top-cited filings
The most-cited records in this corpus are older, foundational filings with outsized citation counts. Confirm whether any core claims from those filings still cover the specific durability mechanism you plan to file around.
Run a claim comparison in Patsnap EurekaVerify assignee momentum before assuming exit
Zero latest-year filings across the named leading assignees may reflect the overall market decline rather than withdrawal. Pull each assignee's full filing history to distinguish a paused portfolio from an abandoned one.
Track assignee activity in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on gas sensor durability patents
In this landscape, it is a patent family that claims a gas sensor, gas detection sensor, or chemiresistive gas sensor together with specific durability language: humidity resistance, temperature stability, or poisoning resistance. Generic gas-sensing filings that do not address one of these failure modes are excluded from the 967-record corpus. This narrows the field to sensors engineered to survive harsh operating conditions rather than sensors in general.
The trend in this corpus is declining. Annual filings peaked at 50 in 2019, had fallen to 18 by the 2022 midpoint, and sit at 7 for the partial 2026 year. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years will revise upward somewhat, but the multi-year direction since 2019 is downward rather than flat.
G01N, material analysis and testing, covers 582 of the 967 records in this corpus — well over half. The next largest classification, H01L for semiconductor devices, holds only 113 records. Smaller clusters appear in temperature measurement, radiation and light measurement, batteries and fuel cells, organic semiconductors, and coating and surface deposition, but none approach the scale of G01N.
The United States receives the largest share of filings in this corpus at 366 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 149 and the WIPO/PCT route at 101. Japan, Canada and Australia trail well behind. A portfolio aiming for broad coverage of the disclosed art in this field should treat US and EPO filing, plus a PCT route, as the baseline rather than an afterthought.
Several sub-areas inside this corpus carry noticeably fewer dedicated filings than the G01N core, including poisoning-resistance coatings for chemiresistive sensors, high-temperature silicon-carbide field-effect sensing, and durability claims specific to organic-semiconductor (H10K) sensor architectures. Lower filing density in a sub-area does not guarantee it is legally open, but it is a reasonable starting point for a freedom-to-operate check before assuming the space is closed.
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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.