Ice Detection Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 98.2% concentration. The top 5 of 6 ranked assignees account for 54 of 55 records in scope, leaving almost no room outside the incumbent set.
- Filing has cooled since its 2018 peak. Nine records published that year; by the last complete year, 2021-to-2024 filings fell 67%, from 3 to 1.
- B64D dominates, but adjacent classes are thin. 74.5% of records sit in aircraft equipment (B64D), while turbine-integrated (F01D) and airframe-structure (B64C) sensing each cover under 8% of the field.
Filing growth compares 2021 (3 records) with 2024 (1) — 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 55 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Ice detection and icing condition sensing patents cover the instruments that tell an aircraft, or its crew, that ice is forming on a surface or that the airmass carries conditions capable of producing it. That spans vibrating-probe and optical ice detectors, liquid water content measurement, supercooled large droplet discrimination, probe heater control, and ultrasonic ice-thickness sensing. The search set combines detector-hardware terms with the icing-physics vocabulary that distinguishes a genuine ice-sensing claim from a general de-icing or anti-icing system claim.
55 published records fall inside this scope between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent years understate real filing activity; the last year with a complete picture is 2024.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 55-record set: when the filings happened, and which IPC subclasses they carry.
A 2018 peak followed by a thinning pipeline
Filings rose from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 9 in 2018, then eased. Comparing the last two complete years available, 2021 to 2024, filings dropped 67%, from 3 to 1. Treat 2025 and 2026 as incomplete rather than as evidence of further decline.
Aircraft equipment carries three-quarters of the field
B64D (aircraft equipment) appears in 74.5% of the 55 records, far ahead of G01N material testing and G08B signalling/alarm systems, each at 27.3%. Measurement-focused classes such as G01B (14.5%), G01W meteorology (9.1%), F01D turbines (7.3%), G01K temperature (7.3%) and B64C aeroplanes/helicopters (5.5%) are present but comparatively lightly claimed, since a record can carry more than one class these shares add to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 55 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Ice Detection and Icing Condition Sensing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ice detection and icing condition sensing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe art everyone in this field cites
Liquid water content measurement apparatus and method (US6560551B1)
Ice accretion on a probe is detected by determining the change of frequency of a vibrating type ice detector or sensor as ice starts to build up. The rate of change of frequency is determined and combined with parameters including air velocity and air temperature to provide a signal indicating liquid water content in the airflow as well as ice accretion on the ice detector.Filed by Rosemount Aerospace Inc., granted 2003-05-06. Sits among the most-cited records in this corpus.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6320511B1 | Ice detector configuration for improved ice detection at near freezing conditions | 72 |
| 2 | US7104502B2 | Ice detector for improved ice detection at near freezing condition | 67 |
| 3 | US3940622A | Icing detector | 64 |
| 4 | US6560551B1 | Liquid water content measurement apparatus and method | 61 |
| 5 | US20020158768A1 | Inflight ice detector to distinguish supercooled large droplet (SLD) icing | 59 |
| 6 | US6759962B2 | Inflight ice detector to distinguish supercooled large droplet (SLD) icing | 48 |
| 7 | US20040024538A1 | Liquid water content measurement apparatus and method using rate of change of ice accretion | 41 |
| 8 | US20050230553A1 | Ice detector for improved ice detection at near freezing condition | 27 |
| 9 | US6847903B2 | Liquid water content measurement apparatus and method | 27 |
| 10 | US9242735B1 | Detecting inflight icing conditions on aircraft | 26 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and favour older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three findings that change how a freedom-to-operate or whitespace search should be scoped in this field.
This field is not open by headcount
Only six assignees show up in the ranking at all, and five of them hold 54 of the 55 records in scope. A new entrant is not competing against a long tail of small filers; it is competing directly against the handful of firms that already occupy the core vibrating-probe and optical-detector claim space.
The pipeline is thinning, not accelerating
After peaking at 9 records in 2018, filing activity fell across the last complete comparison window, from 3 records in 2021 to 1 in 2024. That is a real slowdown in a mature niche, not a data artefact, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in behind the 18-month publication lag.
Claims cluster on the airframe integration, not the sensing physics
B64D dominates because most records claim how a detector mounts and reports on the aircraft, not the underlying measurement principle. G01N and G08B each sit at 27.3%, and the smaller measurement classes, G01B, G01W, F01D, G01K, B64C, are all under 15%, which points to sensing-physics and turbine-integrated variants as comparatively underclaimed.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ice detection and icing condition sensing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
Six assignees appear in this dataset's ranking, and the distribution is steep: the leader alone holds 32 of the 55 records, while fifth place holds 2.
One assignee dominates vibrating-probe and LWC detection
The top-ranked assignee's filings anchor the most-cited art in this corpus, including the frequency-change vibrating-probe approach to liquid water content measurement. Its position was built well before 2018 and its recent-year filing count has dropped to zero, consistent with the field-wide slowdown.
A tight incumbent group, not a single monopoly
Behind the leader sit a small number of aerospace primes and government-affiliated filers, together accounting for nearly all remaining activity. None shows recent-year filings above zero in this data cut, so the incumbent set looks stable rather than actively expanding its footprint.
Almost no room outside the ranked six
With the top 6 assignees covering 100.0% of the 55 records, there is effectively no unranked long tail in this field. A new entrant's realistic path is a narrow, technically distinct claim rather than volume filing against the incumbents.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Rosemount Aerospace Inc. | 0 | — |
| Boeing | 0 | — |
| 佩尼&圣伊莱斯航空航天有限公司 | 0 | — |
| United States of America, represented by the Secretary of the Air Force | 0 | — |
| Canadian Patents and Development Limited | 0 | — |
| ALFRED R PUCCINELLI | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated, slowing field with specific gaps rather than an open frontier. The next steps depend on whether the goal is filing, freedom-to-operate, or monitoring.
Scope a freedom-to-operate search
Start from the most-cited records, especially the vibrating-probe and near-freezing detection family, since these anchor claim language that recurs across the top assignees.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaDraft around the thin classes
Ultrasonic ice-thickness, optical SLD discrimination and turbine-integrated icing severity sensing all carry IPC shares under 15%, suggesting narrower, more defensible claim territory than the crowded B64D cluster.
Explore white space with EurekaTrack the incumbent set, not the market
With six assignees covering the entire ranking, a monitoring program only needs to watch a handful of filers and their recent-year activity rather than a broad market scan.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about ice detection patents
The dataset's assignee ranking has only six companies, and one of them holds 32 of the 55 records in scope, far ahead of the rest. The next four together make up most of the remainder, so the top five combined hold 54 of the 55 records, or 98.2%. This is a genuinely concentrated field rather than one with a dominant leader and a broad supporting cast.
No, based on complete-year data it is contracting. Filings peaked at 9 records in 2018, and across the most recent comparable window, from 2021 to 2024, filings fell 67%, from 3 down to 1. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so they should not yet be read as further decline or as a rebound.
Aircraft equipment, IPC class B64D, appears in 74.5% of the 55 records, making it by far the largest single category. Material analysis/testing (G01N) and signalling/alarm systems (G08B) each cover 27.3% of records. Measurement-specific classes like G01B, G01W, F01D, G01K and B64C are all present but each covers under 15% of records, pointing to comparatively lighter claim density there.
US6560551B1, assigned to Rosemount Aerospace Inc. and granted in 2003, claims a method of detecting ice accretion on a probe by tracking the change in frequency of a vibrating sensor as ice builds up, combined with air velocity and temperature to output a liquid water content signal. It sits among the most-cited records in this corpus, alongside related Rosemount filings on near-freezing ice detection. Anyone designing a vibrating-probe or frequency-shift ice detector needs to map their claims against this family specifically.
The clearest openings sit in classes with low IPC coverage relative to the dominant B64D cluster: ultrasonic ice-thickness sensing, optical detection tuned for supercooled large droplet discrimination, turbine-inlet icing severity sensing linked to F01D, and meteorology-integrated probabilistic icing forecasting under G01W. Each covers under 15% of the 55 records, which suggests thinner prior art than the core probe-mounting and vibrating-sensor claims. A narrow, technically specific claim in one of these branches is a more realistic path than competing head-on with the top five assignees.
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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.