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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/high-voltage-dc-circuit-breakers-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · HVDC Circuit BreakersHigh-Voltage DC Circuit Breaker Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Heading
- Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 50.8% of all 181 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 75.1% — a narrow field to watch, not a fragmented one.
- Two IPC classes dominate the claim space. H02H (protective circuit arrangements) and H01H (switches & relays) each cover more than half of all records, while power conversion and EV-adjacent classes barely register.
- Filing has pulled back from its 2018 peak. Volume ran from 10 filings in 2021 down to 5 in 2024, a -50% move over that span — publication lag means the very latest years will still fill in.
181
Published Records
51%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-50%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
CN
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (10 records) with 2024 (5) — 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 181 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent filings on high-voltage DC circuit breakers — hybrid DC breakers, load commutation switches, energy absorption branches, and the control logic that governs breaking time, residual current interruption and reclosing strategy. The dataset spans 181 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, with the 2018 filing year the peak observed so far.
Coverage centres on the mechanical-electronic hybrid breaker architectures that dominate HVDC grid protection today: main current branches paired with transfer-current and energy-absorption branches, surge arrester sizing, and the switching coordination logic needed to clear a DC fault in milliseconds. Records span multiple receiving offices, reflecting a technology that is being filed wherever HVDC transmission and interconnection projects are being built.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Voltage DC Circuit Breakers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 181 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran from 19 in 2017 to a peak of 20 in 2018, then eased through the early 2020s — 10 in 2021 down to 5 in 2024, a -50% move over that three-year span. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as a continued decline.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H02H (protective circuit arrangements) appears in 61.9% of the 181 records and H01H (switches & relays) in 58.0%, confirming that most claim activity sits in fault-protection logic and physical switching hardware rather than in power conversion (H02M, 1.1%) or EV propulsion (B60L, 0.6%). Records can carry more than one class, so these shares add up to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 181 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Voltage DC Circuit Breakers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Representative filing and most-cited records
Representative Filing
Cascaded full-bridge HVDC circuit breaker with fast reclosing (EP3355431A1)
GLOBAL ENERGY INTERCONNECTION RESEARCH INSTITUTE CO., LTD.
The filing describes an improved cascaded full-bridge high-voltage DC circuit breaker built from a main through-flow branch (mechanical switches plus a full-bridge module circuit), a transfer current branch of series-connected full-bridge module units, and an energy absorption branch built around a lightning arrester. The invention's stated advance is a quick reclosing method for this architecture, paired with a storage medium for implementing it.Filed by Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute, dated 2018-08-01.
Most-cited records in this landscape
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20150022928A1 | Hybrid DC circuit breaking device | 72 |
| 2 | WO2013093066A1 | Hybrid DC circuit breaking device | 51 |
| 3 | WO2014177874A2 | Apparatus and method for controlling a DC current | 50 |
| 4 | US20160285250A1 | High-voltage DC current breaker and high-voltage DC current breaking method | 42 |
| 5 | CN104767171A | 一种高压直流断路器及其实现方法 | 42 |
| 6 | EP0758137A1 | Circuit breaking device | 36 |
| 7 | US20190334340A1 | Hybrid DC circuit breaker | 34 |
| 8 | US20180241202A1 | Fault current managing branch for surge-less current interruption in DC system | 33 |
| 9 | US5737162A | Circuit breaking device | 33 |
| 10 | US20150092311A1 | Methods, systems, and computer readable media for protection of direct current building electrical systems | 31 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings — read them as signals of foundational status, not current commercial weight.
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.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Voltage DC Circuit Breakers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data means for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once volume, concentration and technology mix are read together.
Concentration
75.1%
held by top 10 of 181 records
A narrow leadership group, not a fragmented field
The top 5 assignees already account for 50.8% of all 181 records, and the top 10 push that to 75.1%. A new entrant is not filing into open ground — it is filing against a small number of parties who already hold most of the claim space around hybrid breaker architecture and reclosing control.
Based on the full 77-company ranking.
Technology mix
61.9% / 58.0%
records in H02H / H01H
Protection logic and switching hardware, not power conversion
H02H and H01H between them touch a majority of records, while H02M (power conversion) and B60L (EV propulsion) sit at 1.1% and 0.6% respectively. Claim density is heaviest where fault detection, breaking time and mechanical switch coordination are specified — not in the conversion electronics around them.
Classes overlap; shares are computed against the full 181-record base.
Momentum
-50%
2021 to 2024 filings (10 to 5)
Volume has cooled from its 2018 peak
Filing peaked at 20 in 2018 and has since eased, with 2021's 10 filings falling to 5 by 2024. The most recent one to two years in any patent trend are understated by publication lag, so this should be read as a cooling trend through 2024 rather than a verdict on 2025-2026 activity.
2024 is the most recent year treated as complete.
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Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to high voltage dc circuit breakers, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Voltage DC Circuit Breakers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Who's Filing
The competitive landscape
Filing activity clusters around a small set of grid operators, research institutes and switchgear manufacturers, several of which file jointly with affiliated entities.
Leader
23
records from the top assignee
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 23 records against a fifth-place figure of 14 and a tenth-place figure of 6 — a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-and-field pattern rather than an even spread.
Ranking covers 77 companies total.
Joint filing
20
strongest co-assignee pair
Grid operators and their research arms file together
The strongest co-assignee pairing in the dataset links a national grid operator with its affiliated smart-grid research institute at 20 shared records, with a second engineering-and-technology pairing at 16. This points to filings being coordinated across parent-subsidiary structures rather than filed independently.
10 co-assignee pairs identified overall.
Recent activity
0
latest-year filings across leading assignees
Leading filers show no latest-year activity yet
Every one of the assignees tracked for recent-year momentum, including the top-ranked leader and its research affiliate, shows zero filings in the latest year on record. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this is expected rather than a signal that these players have stopped filing.
Momentum tracked at assignee level, most recent year.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| State Grid Corporation of China | 0 | — |
| Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| General Electric Technology GmbH | 0 | — |
| NR Electric Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| NR Engineering Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Xi'an Jiaotong University | 0 | -100% |
| Eaton Intelligent Power Limited | 0 | — |
| Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Voltage DC Circuit Breakers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking or white-space filing.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader group
With 75.1% of records held by the top 10 of 77 assignees, any new hybrid-breaker filing should be checked against this group's claim scope before drafting, particularly around energy absorption branch design and reclosing logic.
Run an FTO check in EurekaTrack the leading assignee's affiliated filings
The strongest co-assignee pairing shows a grid operator and its research institute filing jointly at volume. Monitoring both entities together, not just the parent, gives a fuller picture of that group's filing direction.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaExplore the under-claimed branches
Power conversion interfaces, EV-adjacent breaking and digital fault-diagnostic processing all sit under 6% of records despite touching the same core breaker hardware. These are candidate areas for a first-mover claim.
Explore white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Voltage DC Circuit Breakers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on HVDC circuit breaker patents
The dataset shows a clear leader holding 23 of the 181 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 14 and the tenth-ranked at 6. The top 5 assignees combined account for 50.8% of all records, and the top 10 account for 75.1%, so filing activity is concentrated in a small group of grid operators, research institutes and switchgear manufacturers rather than spread evenly across the 77 companies in the ranking. Anyone assessing competitive risk in this space should start with that leadership group rather than the long tail.
Filing peaked at 20 records in 2018 and had fallen to 5 by 2024, down from 10 in 2021 — a -50% move over that three-year span. However, because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any such dataset are still incomplete and understate real activity. The honest read is that 2024 marks the most recent complete year, and it shows a cooled but still active field.
The large majority of records sit in two IPC subclasses: H02H, protective circuit arrangements, at 61.9% of all 181 records, and H01H, switches and relays, at 58.0%. Smaller shares touch power supply and grid systems (H02J, 8.3%), pulse-logic control (H03K, 5.5%) and measurement (G01R, 5.0%), with power conversion and EV propulsion barely represented. This tells a filer that claim density concentrates on fault protection and physical switching mechanisms, not on the surrounding conversion electronics.
A representative filing in this space, EP3355431A1, claims a cascaded full-bridge architecture built from a main through-flow branch with mechanical switches and a full-bridge module circuit, a transfer current branch of series full-bridge units, and an energy absorption branch centred on a lightning arrester, together with a fast reclosing method for that structure. This three-branch pattern — main path, transfer path, energy absorption — recurs across many of the most-cited records in the dataset, making it a useful reference point for freedom-to-operate review.
Relative to the 181-record base, several adjacent branches are thinly claimed: power conversion interface circuits (H02M) appear in only 1.1% of records, EV-adjacent DC breaking (B60L) in 0.6%, and digital fault-diagnostic processing (G06F) in 0.6%. These sit next to, rather than inside, the dominant H02H/H01H claim territory, which makes them plausible areas for a first claim that does not immediately collide with the concentrated leadership group.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Voltage DC Circuit Breakers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.