Graphene Thin Film Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has cooled from its 2022 peak. 69 families that year against 61 in 2017 and just 3 recorded so far in the most recent year — though publication lag means the last year or two is always undercounted.
- China dominates the filing venue. 298 of 696 families were filed at the China office, more than the US, EPO, WIPO, Japan and India receiving offices combined.
- The oldest citation leaders still set the boundary. The most-cited record in the set dates to an electrophoretic deposition and reduction patent, cited 215 times — a sign influence sits with early filers, not necessarily current activity.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 696 patent families filed between 2015 and 2026 under IPC classes covering non-metallic inorganic compounds, coating and surface deposition, and nanotechnology applications, matched against claim text for graphene film, graphene production and layer-number or sheet-resistance control. It captures the two dominant production philosophies in the field — chemical vapor deposition onto a growth substrate followed by transfer, and reduction of graphene oxide films in place — plus the doping and hybrid-structure work built on top of both.
Filing concentrated heavily in the C01B and C23C subclasses, which together account for the large majority of records, with B82Y nanotechnology and H01L semiconductor-adjacent filings forming a distinct secondary cluster around device integration.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Annual filing counts and the IPC subclass breakdown for the 696 families in this landscape, drawn directly from the underlying search.
A peak in 2022, then a decline
Filings rose from 61 in 2017 to a peak of 69 in 2022, then fell off. Because publications lag actual filing by roughly 18 months, the low counts in the most recent one to two years understate real activity rather than confirming a slowdown.
Coating and deposition dominate the classification mix
C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds) covers 512 of the 696 records and C23C (coating and surface deposition) covers 292, confirming that most claim activity sits in material production rather than downstream device claims — H01L semiconductor devices trail at 77.
Shares are the percentage of the 696 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Graphene Thin Films and Production Methods with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about graphene thin films and production methods and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records the field cites most
Nitrogen-doped transparent graphene film and manufacturing method thereof
This 2012 filing from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology describes preparing a transparent graphene film by holding a graphene oxide thin film in its primary reduced state through chemical reduction, then further reducing it via chemical vapor deposition while doping with nitrogen. The stated result is a flexible, transparent film with enhanced conductivity and a controllable work function, positioned for large-area, large-quantity production suitable for industrial processing.Illustrates the reduction-and-doping route to transparent conductive film, one of two dominant production philosophies in this landscape.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110227000A1 | Electrophoretic deposition and reduction of graphene oxide to make graphene film coatings and electrode struc… | 215 |
| 2 | US20130048339A1 | Transparent electrodes based on graphene and grid hybrid structures | 111 |
| 3 | WO2009129194A2 | Large-area single- and few-layer graphene on arbitrary substrates | 84 |
| 4 | CN102220566A | 一种化学气相沉积制备单层和多层石墨烯的方法 | 80 |
| 5 | WO2009119641A1 | Process for producing monoatomic film | 70 |
| 6 | US20130329366A1 | Integrated graphene film heat spreader for display devices | 68 |
| 7 | US20130022811A1 | Stable graphene film and preparing method of the same | 63 |
| 8 | US20120161192A1 | Nitrogen-doped transparent graphene film and manufacturing method thereof | 61 |
| 9 | CN102616769A | 一种直接转移石墨烯薄膜的方法 | 55 |
| 10 | US20120270054A1 | Roll-to-roll doping method of graphene film, and doped graphene film | 54 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that later art had time to cite — read this as a map of influence on subsequent claim drafting, not a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern signals
Three read-throughs from the trend, classification and citation data — useful for deciding where a new filing would actually add claim coverage versus where it would land on occupied ground.
Activity has already crested
The count climbed from 61 families in 2017 to a peak of 69 in 2022 before declining. Combined with the near-zero counts of the last couple of years — an artefact of publication lag rather than a real stop — this points to a field past its first filing wave rather than one still accelerating.
China is the primary filing venue by a wide margin
298 families were filed at the China receiving office against 188 at the US office, with EPO, WIPO, Japan and India well behind. Any freedom-to-operate check for manufacturing or sourcing tied to this technology has to clear the China office first.
Production chemistry, not device integration, holds the claim density
C01B and C23C together cover the bulk of filings, meaning most claims describe the film-forming chemistry itself rather than how the film is used. H01L and H01B — semiconductor and conductor applications — are comparatively thin, at 77 and 53 records.
Influence sits with the earliest reduction-route filing
The most-cited record in this set, on electrophoretic deposition and reduction of graphene oxide, predates most of the corpus and still leads citations by a wide margin over the next-ranked record. New filers building on graphene oxide reduction are almost certainly citing or designing around this boundary already.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to graphene thin films and production methods, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and collaboration patterns
Filing here is led by university and national-lab groups rather than a single dominant corporate assignee, with a small number of recurring co-filing pairs linking academic and institutional partners.
Peking University and the Beijing Graphene Institute file jointly
The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset links Peking University with the Beijing Graphene Institute across 18 shared families, the densest single collaboration link in the landscape. A second strong pair connects the French National Centre for Scientific Research with Grenoble Alpes University at 14 shared families.
Even active filers are pulling back
Peking University and the Beijing Graphene Institute each show only a single family in the latest year, down 50% year-on-year; Tokyo Electron and the French CNRS show zero in the latest year, down 100%. This is consistent with a field where the early filing wave has largely played out for the historically active names.
Cross-border academic partnerships are the norm, not corporate JVs
The recurring co-filing pairs are almost all university-to-institute or university-to-university, spanning China, France and cross-national academic consortia, rather than corporate joint ventures. That suggests licensing conversations in this space route through research offices, not corporate BD teams.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Peking University | 1 | -50% |
| Beijing Graphene Institute | 1 | -50% |
| Zhejiang University | 0 | — |
| Tokyo Electron Limited | 0 | -100% |
| French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) | 0 | -100% |
| Tsinghua University | 0 | — |
| Grenoble Alpes University | 0 | -100% |
| Nanotek Instruments | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The ranking, trend chart and citation table on this page are a starting point for a freedom-to-operate or licensing decision, not the end of one.
Check claim scope, not just filing counts
A high count in C01B or C23C tells you claim space is occupied, not which specific claims block a given process. Pull the independent claims on the most-cited records before assuming a route is closed.
Run a claim-scope search in EurekaTrack the co-filing pairs for licensing leads
Recurring co-assignee pairs, like the Peking University and Beijing Graphene Institute link, often signal where a licensing conversation should start rather than where a blocking patent sits alone.
Map assignee networks in EurekaCommon questions on graphene thin film patents
The two dominant approaches in the patent record are chemical vapor deposition of graphene onto a growth substrate followed by a transfer step, and reduction of graphene oxide films directly on a target substrate, often assisted by chemical or electrophoretic deposition. CVD routes dominate the C23C coating and deposition classification, while reduction routes cluster in C01B. A smaller but active cluster covers doping variants, such as nitrogen doping, layered onto either base process to tune conductivity or work function.
By citation count, the most influential record in this landscape is an early filing on electrophoretic deposition and reduction of graphene oxide, cited 215 times, well ahead of the next-most-cited record on transparent electrodes using graphene and grid hybrid structures. High citation counts reflect how much later filings built on or cited a given patent, which naturally favours older filings — it is a measure of influence on subsequent drafting, not of who is most active today. Current filing volume is led by academic and institutional assignees rather than any single corporate name.
No — filings peaked at 69 families in 2022 after rising from 61 in 2017, and have declined since. The very low counts in the most recent one to two years should be read cautiously, since patent publication typically lags the actual filing date by around 18 months, so recent activity is understated in any dataset cut off close to the present. Taken together, the pattern looks like a field past its first wave of filing rather than one still accelerating.
China, by a substantial margin — 298 of the 696 families in this landscape were filed at the China receiving office, compared with 188 at the US office and far fewer at the EPO, WIPO, Japan and India offices. Anyone assessing freedom to operate for manufacturing or sourcing tied to graphene film production should treat the China filing corpus as the primary screen, not a secondary one.
Relative to the dense core of CVD and graphene-oxide-reduction claims, several adjacent branches carry noticeably thinner filing density: roll-to-roll transfer onto flexible polymer substrates, layer-number control via catalyst pre-treatment, and sheet-resistance uniformity control across large-area films. These sit close to heavily claimed territory but are not yet saturated, which makes them worth a dedicated freedom-to-operate scan before assuming the space is closed. Co-doping variants for work-function tuning are another area with comparatively sparse coverage relative to single-element nitrogen doping.
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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.