High aspect ratio dielectric etch patents: who holds the claims and where they thin out
60.6% concentration. The top 5 assignees alone account for 561 of the 926 records in scope — most of the claim space sits with a handful of equipment makers. Filings rose from 42 in 2017 to a peak of 119 in 2025, though the 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates. The more reliable comparison is 2021 (38) to 2024 (40), a +5% move over three years, which points to a mature, steadily active field rather than one experiencing a filing surge.
- 1LAM RES CORP266
- 2SILVEBROOK KIA100
- 3APPLIED MATERIALS INC69
- 4LAIR LIQUIDE SA POUR LETUDE & LEXPLOITATION DES PROCEDES GEORGES CLAUDE63
- 5MEMJET TECH LTD63
See the full high aspect ratio dielectric etch analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in high aspect ratio dielectric etch?
The assignee ranking for this dataset covers 100 companies, and it is heavily front-loaded: the leading assignee alone holds 266 of the 926 records in scope, and the top 5 combined account for 561 records, or 60.6% of the field. By tenth place, individual assignees hold only 16 records each, so the practical picture is one dominant filer, a handful of strong followers, and a long tail of smaller entrants. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should focus clearance work on the top 5 to 10 assignees first, since they hold the large majority of the claim space.
Is patent filing in dielectric etch still growing?
Filing activity grew modestly rather than surging: from 38 filings in 2021 to 40 in 2024, a +5% change over three years. The raw yearly count shows a peak of 119 in 2025, but that figure and 2026's are both understated because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so recent years always look lower than they will eventually settle. Treat 2024 as the last fully reliable year of data when judging whether the field is heating up or cooling down.
What is the most cited patent in this field?
The most-cited record in this dataset is US20130122712A1, 'Method of etching high aspect ratio features in a dielectric layer,' with 567 citations, ahead of US7326656B2 on metal oxide dielectric formation at 457 citations. High citation counts in a searched corpus tend to favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations, so they are best read as a signal of influence on subsequent filings rather than a measure of which patents matter most today.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Aspect Ratio Dielectric Etch covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.