Inline Process Control Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Inline Process Control and Virtual Metrology Patents
77.3% of all 88 records sit with the top five assignees — this field is concentrated, not fragmented, and a new entrant is filing into occupied ground. Annual filings rose from 4 records in 2017 to a peak of 22 in 2023, then eased to 5 by 2024 — a -17% move across the 2021-to-2024 window that is the last span the data can call complete. Readings for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a further decline.
- 1APPLIED MATERIALS INC32
- 2ASML NETHERLANDS BV15
- 3VANDERBILT UNIV8
- 4KLA CORP7
- 5HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC6
See the full inline process control and virtual metrology 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 holds the most patents in virtual metrology and inline process control?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 32 of the 88 records in scope, more than five times the count held by the fifth-placed company at 6. The top five assignees combined account for 77.3% of all 88 records, so filing activity is concentrated rather than spread evenly across the 39 companies in the ranking. Anyone assessing this space should treat the leader’s published applications as the closest thing to a boundary map of current claims.
Is patent filing in this field growing or slowing down?
Filing peaked at 22 records in 2023, then declined to 5 by 2024, a -17% move measured from 2021 to 2024 — the last window the dataset can treat as complete. Counts for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a genuine drop-off. Judging the field’s current trajectory on the two most recent years alone would be misleading.
What technology areas get the most patent claims in this space?
Control and regulating systems, IPC class G05B, appear in 40.9% of the 88 records in scope, ahead of H10P at 26.1%, semiconductor devices (H01L) at 23.9%, AI-based computing methods (G06N) at 22.7% and photolithography (G03F) at 21.6%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% of the record total — they describe where claim density concentrates, not a clean split of the field. Material-analysis and testing claims (G01N) are comparatively thin at 10.2%.
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 Inline Process Control and Virtual Metrology 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.