Integrated Photonics Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has pulled back from its peak. 2022 was the high point at 1,929 filings; the last complete year (2021 to 2024) shows a 24% decline.
- Leadership is spread, not locked down. The top 5 assignees hold just 14.3% of all 20,189 records, and the top 10 hold 22.8% — a long tail of filers sits behind them.
- Optical elements dominate the claim space. G02B (optical elements & systems) touches 56.1% of records, more than three times the share of any other IPC subclass in scope.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,892 records) with 2024 (1,437) — 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 20,189 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this dataset covers
This landscape covers 20,189 published records filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off that combine integrated photonics or silicon photonics terms with waveguide, emitter, receiver, wavelength-control or optical-coupling language in title, abstract, claims or description. It spans the components that make photonic integration workable at scale: waveguide structures, tunable lasers, optical modulators, and the coupling interfaces between chips and fibre or free-space optics.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one or two years in any trend understate real filing activity; the 2024 figures are the last that can be read as complete.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Annual filing counts and IPC subclass distribution across all 20,189 records in scope, drawn directly from the underlying search.
Filing rose to a 2022 peak, then eased
Filings climbed from 1,182 in 2017 to a peak of 1,929 in 2022, then declined to 1,437 by 2024 — a 24% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag and should not be read as a continued fall.
Optical elements carry the claim density
G02B (optical elements & systems) appears in 56.1% of records, well ahead of G02F (optical control & modulation, 17.4%) and H04B (transmission, 17.1%). Laser and semiconductor-device classes (H01S, H01L) each sit above 10%, while radar/positioning (G01S) and material analysis (G01N) trail under 5% — smaller but not negligible adjacent branches.
Shares are the percentage of the 20,189 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about integrated photonics patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US9529154B2 — Method for optical coupling between a photonic integrated circuit and an external optical element
Filed by IMEC VZW, this patent covers a method of optically coupling a photonic integrated circuit to an external optical component: providing a PIC with at least one integrated waveguide under a cover layer, providing an external component with an optical coupling facet, and determining the position of that facet relative to the waveguide to form a coupled assembly.Abstract trimmed for length; see the full record for complete claim language.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6887202B2 | Systems and methods for monitoring health and delivering drugs transdermally | 371 |
| 2 | US20160161600A1 | Optical phased array lidar system and method of using same | 366 |
| 3 | US20140376001A1 | Integrated optical system and components utilizing tunable optical sources and coherent detection and phased … | 347 |
| 4 | US20120141799A1 | Film on Graphene on a Substrate and Method and Devices Therefor | 347 |
| 5 | US20090052827A1 | Silicon-Compatible Surface Plasmon Optical Elements | 316 |
| 6 | US20170207600A1 | 3D photonic integration with light coupling elements | 296 |
| 7 | US20030095737A1 | Transmitter photonic integrated circuits (TxPIC) and optical transport networks employing TxPICs | 294 |
| 8 | US7391520B2 | Fourier domain optical coherence tomography employing a swept multi-wavelength laser and a multi-channel rece… | 293 |
| 9 | US8546955B1 | Multi-die stack package | 283 |
| 10 | US20030095736A1 | Transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TxPIC) chip architectures and drive systems and wavelength stabiliza… | 281 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence rather than current relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Four read-outs from the composition and concentration figures above, aimed at where to file next and who to watch.
No single filer controls the field
The leader holds 723 records and the top 10 combined hold 22.8% of all 20,189 records in scope. That leaves the majority of filing activity spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, which means freedom-to-operate analysis has to look well beyond the largest names.
Optical elements & systems is the busiest claim space
More than half of all records carry a G02B classification, covering optical elements and systems broadly. Filing here means navigating dense prior art; the modulation (G02F) and transmission (H04B) classes, each under 18%, carry comparatively more room.
Filing has eased from its 2022 peak
Filings peaked at 1,929 in 2022 and fell to 1,437 by 2024, a 24% decline over that span. Several of the largest historical filers show sharp year-on-year drops in the most recent complete year, which is consistent with a maturing rather than an expanding claim landscape.
Filing is concentrated in the US, with EPO and PCT as secondary routes
The United States accounts for the largest share of receiving-office filings, with Europe (EPO) and WIPO (PCT) as the next most-used routes, followed by Germany, Austria and the UK at smaller volumes.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to integrated photonics patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape
The ranking covers 100 companies by record count — not a top-50 or top-100 cut of the whole field, but the complete ranking the dataset returns. Filing is led by large semiconductor and telecom-equipment firms alongside a research institute with a strong co-filing pattern.
A single leader, not a runaway one
The top-ranked assignee holds 723 records, well ahead of fifth place at 408 and tenth place at 309 — a steep drop-off after the leader but a gentler slope through the rest of the top 10.
University-industry co-filing is concentrated in one pairing
The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset links a Belgian microelectronics research centre with a university partner at 223 joint records — far ahead of the next co-filing pairs, pointing to a stable long-running collaboration rather than a broad network.
Even top filers are pulling back
Several of the historically largest assignees show sharp year-on-year declines or zero filings in the latest tracked year, though this partly reflects publication lag rather than a genuine stop in R&D activity.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | 6 | -89% |
| Intel Corporation | 2 | -60% |
| Infinera Corporation | 0 | — |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) | 0 | -100% |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson | 0 | — |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | -100% |
| Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above frame where filing has concentrated and where it has thinned; the next step is usually a narrower, claim-level pass on a specific sub-branch or competitor set.
Map a single sub-branch in detail
Pull the claim language behind a single IPC subclass, such as G02F modulation or H01S lasers, to see which specific mechanisms are claimed and which are still open.
Explore in Patsnap Eureka →Track a competitor's filing trajectory
Follow a specific assignee's year-by-year filing and citation pattern to see whether their recent pullback reflects publication lag or an actual strategy shift.
Explore in Patsnap Eureka →Check freedom-to-operate against the long tail
With the top 10 assignees holding only 22.8% of records, a freedom-to-operate check needs to reach into the long tail of smaller filers, not just the named leaders.
Explore in Patsnap Eureka →Common questions on the integrated photonics patent landscape
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by record count, and the leader holds 723 records with the field spread across a long tail behind them. The top 5 combined account for 14.3% of all 20,189 records in scope, and the top 10 combined account for 22.8%, so no single company controls the space. Large semiconductor manufacturers, telecom-equipment makers and one Belgian microelectronics research centre appear among the more active filers, alongside many smaller, single-filing entrants.
Filing rose from 1,182 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,929 in 2022, then declined to 1,437 by 2024 — a 24% drop over that three-year span, which is the last period that can be read as complete. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so they should not be read as evidence of a continuing decline. The honest read is that filing eased after 2022 rather than that it is currently falling.
Optical elements and systems, IPC class G02B, appears in 56.1% of all 20,189 records in scope, making it by far the densest claim area. Optical control and modulation (G02F) and general transmission (H04B) each sit around 17%, with lasers (H01S) and semiconductor devices (H01L) both above 10%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and they are not mutually exclusive categories.
Relative to the dense G02B optical-elements space, branches tied to phased-array beam steering, graphene-on-silicon photonic layers, surface-plasmon waveguide elements and coherent-detection integration carry comparatively fewer records. These are documented in the most-cited filings in this dataset but have not attracted the same filing density as core waveguide and modulation claims. A narrower search inside one of these branches is the practical next step before assuming an idea is clear to file.
The United States receives the largest volume of filings in this dataset at 11,364 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 2,997 and the WIPO PCT route at 2,439. Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom follow at smaller volumes. This reflects where applicants choose to seek protection, not necessarily where the underlying R&D originates.
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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.