Getter Materials Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- One assignee dominates. The leader alone holds 193 of 326 records in scope, with the top 5 combined reaching 70.2% and the top 10 reaching 79.1%.
- Filings have gone flat. Activity peaked at 12 in 2017 and sat at 9 by the 2022 midpoint, a pattern of decline rather than continued build-out.
- Electron-tube claims dominate the class mix. H01J covers 80.1% of the 326 records, far ahead of alloy composition claims under C22C at 37.4%.
What getter material patenting actually covers
Getter materials remove residual gas from sealed vacuum spaces and encapsulated devices — from cathode-ray and field-emission displays to OLED panels and vacuum insulation. The 326 records in scope span alloy composition, activation and outgassing behaviour, and device-level integration such as gettering structures bonded to a faceplate or baseplate. The dataset combines classes tied to electron and discharge tubes (H01J), alloys (C22C), powder metallurgy (B22F) and separation processes (B01D), reflecting how getter claims sit at the intersection of materials science and vacuum device engineering.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the 2026 count in the trend chart is necessarily incomplete and should not be read as a drop-off on its own. Even accounting for that lag, the mid-decade numbers point to a mature, well-occupied claim space rather than an expanding one.
Filing trend and technology composition
The record set spans 2015 to mid-2026, with receiving-office data and IPC classification showing where claim density actually sits.
A peak in 2017, flat filing since
Filings peaked at 12 in 2017 and had fallen to 9 by the 2022 midpoint, consistent with a field where the core chemistry and device architectures were claimed early and have not attracted a fresh wave of filers since.
H01J and C22C carry the bulk of the claims
H01J (electron and discharge tubes) appears in 80.1% of the 326 records, and C22C (alloys) in 37.4% — the two classes that anchor the field. B01J, B22F, F04B, B01D, C01B and H01L each sit well below 20%, marking them as secondary but not absent categories; classes overlap within a single record, so these figures sum above 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 326 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Getter Materials for Vacuum and Encapsulation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about getter materials for vacuum and encapsulation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe patents every filer in this space has to clear
US6033278A — Field emission display with non-evaporable getter material
The filing describes a field emission display in which an unactivated non-evaporable getter material is deposited on both the faceplate and baseplate substrates. The faceplate carries a cathodoluminescent layer; the baseplate carries an emitter array. The two are coupled to form a sealed vacuum space, with the getter positioned to maintain vacuum integrity over the device's operating life.Assigned to Round Rock Research, LLC; filed as part of the field-emission display generation of getter integration patents.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US3926832A | Gettering structure | 115 |
| 2 | GB2077487A | A gettering composition and structure | 114 |
| 3 | US6149392A | Getter pump with high gas sorption velocity | 104 |
| 4 | US5882727A | Method for forming supported thin layers of non-evaporable getter material and getter devices formed thereby | 84 |
| 5 | EP0869195A1 | Non-evaporable getter alloys | 82 |
| 6 | US5456740A | High-efficiency metal membrane getter element and process for making | 81 |
| 7 | US5324172A | High-capacity getter pump | 81 |
| 8 | US5688708A | Method of making an ultra-high vacuum field emission display | 78 |
| 9 | US5689151A | Anode plate for flat panel display having integrated getter | 70 |
| 10 | US5789859A | Field emission display with non-evaporable getter material | 69 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; treat them as a map of foundational prior art, not a ranking of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, trend and classification data are read together.
The field is not evenly contested
The top 5 assignees hold 70.2% of the 326 records in scope, and the leader alone accounts for 193. A new entrant is not competing against 77 similarly sized players — it is competing against one dominant portfolio and a long tail of much smaller filers.
Filing activity is flat to declining
The peak year, 2017, produced 12 filings; by the 2022 midpoint that had fallen to 9. Recent-year momentum figures for several named assignees show 0 filings in the latest year, reinforcing that this is a slowing rather than accelerating field.
Device integration claims outweigh pure chemistry
H01J (electron and discharge tube structures) appears in 80.1% of records, well ahead of C22C alloy claims at 37.4%. This suggests device-level gettering integration is more heavily claimed territory than novel getter alloy chemistry itself.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to getter materials for vacuum and encapsulation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it thins out
A single assignee anchors the field, with a cluster of mid-sized filers and co-filing relationships behind it. Momentum data shows most of the named assignees produced zero filings in the latest year, which is where the opportunity to re-enter sits.
One portfolio dominates the ranking
The leading assignee holds 193 of the 326 records in scope, dwarfing the fifth-place holder at 8 and tenth-place at 4. Any freedom-to-operate review in this space starts with that portfolio.
A steep drop after the leader
Filing counts fall away sharply after the top position — fifth place holds 8 records and tenth place holds 4. This steep gradient means most of the ranked field files only occasionally rather than sustaining a filing programme.
Co-filing is limited but concentrated
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairing recorded at 7 shared filings. Co-filing activity clusters among a small number of corporate-affiliate relationships rather than spreading broadly across the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| SAES Getters S.p.A. | 0 | -100% |
| Futaba Corporation | 0 | — |
| Sony Group Corporation | 0 | — |
| Tecnovac Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hewlett Packard Development Company, L.P. | 0 | — |
| Hewlett Packard Company | 0 | — |
| Candescent Intellectual Property Services, Inc. | 0 | — |
| BENTELER AUTOMOTIVE CORP | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated, slowing field with specific under-claimed branches. The next step is testing a specific claim idea or filer against the full record set.
Map a claim against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 193 of 326 records, any new filing in device-level gettering integration should be checked against that portfolio's claim scope before drafting.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
OLED encapsulation and vacuum insulation panel integration show lighter documented activity than the core H01J and C22C classes — worth a targeted prior-art pull before committing R&D spend.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on getter material patents
The dataset of 326 records shows a single assignee holding 193 records, making it by far the largest portfolio holder in this field. The top 5 assignees combined account for 70.2% of all records, and the top 10 account for 79.1%. Beyond that concentration, the ranking includes 77 companies total, with the majority holding only a handful of records each — meaning most of the competitive landscape is a long tail rather than a broad field of equally matched filers.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 at 12 records and had declined to 9 by the 2022 midpoint, indicating a flat-to-declining trend rather than growth. Several named assignees show zero filings in the most recent year tracked. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the very latest year in any such dataset will always look lower than it eventually turns out to be, but the multi-year trajectory here points to a mature rather than expanding filing pattern.
The strongest classification is H01J, covering electron and discharge tube structures, which appears in 80.1% of the 326 records — indicating that device-level integration of getter materials into vacuum devices is the dominant claim territory. C22C, covering alloy compositions, appears in 37.4% of records. Secondary classes include B01J, B22F, F04B, B01D, C01B and H01L, each under 20%, covering chemical processes, powder metallurgy, pumps, separation, inorganic compounds and semiconductor integration respectively.
US6033278A, assigned to Round Rock Research, LLC, covers a field emission display design where unactivated non-evaporable getter material is deposited on both the faceplate and baseplate substrates that together form the sealed vacuum space. It is one of the most heavily cited records in this dataset alongside older foundational patents such as US3926832A and GB2077487A. Anyone designing a similarly structured dual-substrate vacuum device with getter material on both surfaces should review this claim scope closely, particularly around deposition placement and the unactivated-state limitation.
The classification data shows lighter documented activity in branches like OLED thin-film encapsulation, vacuum insulation panel integration, and powder-metallurgy forming methods relative to the dominant H01J and C22C claim territory. Low-temperature activation alloy chemistry also appears less saturated than the core electron-tube integration claims. These are not guarantees of open claim space, but they are areas where the concentration seen at the top of the ranking has not been replicated, making them worth a targeted prior-art search before committing to a filing strategy.
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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.