Hall Effect Thruster Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 48.4% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 30 of all 62 records in scope, but the remaining ranked leaders show a long tail of single- and double-digit filers.
- Filing rebounded sharply. From 2021 to 2024, annual filings rose from 1 to 3 — a +200% increase over that three-year span, after a 2017 peak of 8.
- Claims cluster on propulsion, not electronics. F03H (plasma & ion propulsion) and B64G (cosmonautics & spacecraft) cover 71.0% and 64.5% of records respectively, while control and data-processing classes barely register.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 records) with 2024 (3) — 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 62 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the Hall effect thruster patent record shows
Hall effect thrusters convert electrical power into thrust by ionising propellant in an annular discharge channel and accelerating ions through a radial magnetic field. The patent record in scope — 62 records spanning 2015 through mid-2026 — concentrates heavily on the physical hardware of that channel: erosion-resistant walls, magnetic shielding topologies, cathode coupling and anode gas distribution. Filing activity peaked in 2017 and has since moved in a lower but recovering band, with the most recent complete year showing renewed growth.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in this dataset are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown. The clearer signal is structural: claim density sits almost entirely in plasma propulsion and spacecraft hardware classes, while adjacent control-software and optical-sensing classes carry only one record each.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 62-record dataset: filings by year, and the IPC subclasses those filings claim into.
Filings rebuilt after the 2017 peak
Annual filings ran from 8 in 2017 down to a low point before recovering to 3 by 2024, a +200% rise over the 2021-2024 span. 2026 is a partial year and will fill in as publications catch up.
Propulsion and spacecraft hardware dominate the classes
F03H (plasma & ion propulsion) appears in 71.0% of the 62 records and B64G (cosmonautics & spacecraft) in 64.5%; H05H (plasma & particle accelerators) reaches 35.5%. Classes tied to control electronics, optics and data processing each cover 6.5% or less, since records often carry more than one class these shares sum above 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 62 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hall Effect Thruster Technology with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hall effect thruster technology and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this field
Ion focusing in a hall effect thruster (US20130026917A1)
A Hall effect thruster with an annular discharge channel that includes inner and outer sidewall electrodes located at an axial position downstream from the anode, with shielding elements — potentially magnetic — configured to protect those electrodes from electrons in the channel.Filed by Georgia Tech Research Corporation, published 2013-01-31.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5847493A | Hall effect plasma accelerator | 84 |
| 2 | US20040164205A1 | Deployable spacecraft mount for electric propulsion | 51 |
| 3 | US6543723B1 | Electric orbit raising with variable thrust | 44 |
| 4 | US20150128560A1 | Magnetically shielded miniature hall thruster | 39 |
| 5 | US20090058305A1 | Compact high current rare-earth emitter hollow cathode for hall effect thrusters | 37 |
| 6 | US8143788B2 | Compact high current rare-earth emitter hollow cathode for hall effect thrusters | 34 |
| 7 | US7059571B2 | Deployable spacecraft mount for electric propulsion | 28 |
| 8 | US20190168895A1 | Low-power hall thruster with an internally mounted low-current hollow cathode | 27 |
| 9 | US11834204B1 | Sources for plasma assisted electric propulsion | 26 |
| 10 | US6982520B1 | Hall effect thruster with anode having magnetic field barrier | 25 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial 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, the trend and the IPC composition are read together.
Leadership is concentrated but not locked
The top 5 assignees account for 30 of the 62 records in scope, yet the ranking runs to 29 companies total, with the fifth-place holder at only 4 filings and tenth place at 2. That gap between a handful of leaders and a long single-digit tail suggests the field is contestable rather than closed.
Recovery is real, but recent years are incomplete
Filings fell from a 2017 peak of 8 to a low point before climbing back to 3 by 2024, a threefold increase over that span. Because publication trails filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as they backfill — they should not be read as a renewed dip.
Hardware claims dominate over control and sensing
F03H and B64G together cover the bulk of filings, while classes touching optical sensing (1.6%) and digital control (1.6%) each carry a single record. That imbalance points to where claim space is thin rather than crowded.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hall effect thruster technology, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders span aerospace primes, a national lab, and university and government research centres; below them sits a long tail of single-digit filers, several with no activity in the latest year.
A single leader ahead of a dense pack
The top-ranked assignee holds 9 records, well ahead of fifth place at 4 and tenth place at 2, indicating one clear leader followed by closely matched competitors rather than a dominant monopoly.
Collaboration is rare and specific
Only two co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, both involving Keldysh Research Center alongside European partners, suggesting most development happens within a single organisation rather than through joint filings.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet across the board
Several of the most active historical filers, including the top-ranked assignee and multiple aerospace and research organisations, show zero filings in the latest year. Given the 18-month publication lag, this reflects incomplete recent data more than a genuine stop in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| California Institute of Technology (Caltech) | 0 | — |
| VIRIDIAN SPACE CORP | 0 | -100% |
| Aerojet Rocketdyne | 0 | — |
| Airbus Defence and Space GmbH | 0 | — |
| KELDYSH RES CENT | 0 | — |
| INT SCI PRODS | 0 | — |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of Michigan | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking or new filing strategy.
Check freedom-to-operate against the most-cited records
The highest-cited patents, including US5847493A and US20040164205A1, anchor much of the prior art around discharge channel design and deployable mounting; any new hardware filing should be checked against these first.
Explore citation network in EurekaTrack the leaders showing zero recent-year filings
Several historically active assignees show no filings in the latest tracked year; given the publication lag, watch for a rebound before assuming reduced R&D investment.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaScope claims in the under-claimed IPC branches
Classes tied to control software, optics and data processing carry only one record each, well below the density in F03H and B64G, suggesting narrower but less contested filing routes.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions on Hall effect thruster patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset covers 29 companies across 62 records, with a single leader holding 9 records, ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 4 and the tenth-ranked holder at 2. This is a concentrated-but-contestable field: the top 5 assignees together account for 48.4% of all 62 records, yet no single company dominates the remaining ranked leaders. Aerospace primes, a Russian government research centre and a university research corporation all appear among the leaders, so the field is not limited to one type of organisation.
Filings peaked in 2017 at 8 and then declined before recovering: from 2021 to 2024, annual filings rose from 1 to 3, a +200% increase over that span. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset will still be incomplete, so a recent-looking dip should not be read as an actual slowdown. Based on the 2021-2024 trend, the field is in a growth phase rather than a mature or declining one.
F03H, the plasma and ion propulsion class, appears in 71.0% of the 62 records in scope, and B64G, covering cosmonautics and spacecraft, appears in 64.5%. H05H, plasma and particle accelerators, covers 35.5%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures add up to more than 100%, and they confirm that patent activity centres on the discharge channel, magnetic shielding and spacecraft integration hardware rather than on control electronics or software.
US20130026917A1, assigned to Georgia Tech Research Corporation and published in January 2013, claims a Hall effect thruster with an annular discharge channel featuring inner and outer sidewall electrodes positioned downstream from the anode. It further claims shielding elements, which may be magnetic, configured to protect those sidewall electrodes from electrons circulating in the channel. Anyone designing an ion-focusing or electron-shielding scheme for a discharge channel in this axial configuration should review this filing's specific claim language before finalising a design.
The IPC composition shows visible under-claiming outside core propulsion hardware: classes touching optical diagnostics and digital control each cover only 1.6% of the 62 records, compared with 71.0% for plasma and ion propulsion. Sub-areas such as anode gas distributor geometry, discharge current oscillation control and cathode coupling voltage sensing show similarly thin coverage relative to the discharge-channel and shielding claims that dominate the leaders' portfolios. These narrower branches are worth scoping for new filings precisely because the dense prior art sits elsewhere.
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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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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.