Ion Implantation and Doping Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing has declined since its 2018 peak. 91 families filed that year against 65 in 2017 and a midpoint of 60 in 2022 — this is a mature, flattening claim space, not a growing one.
- H01L dominates the classification mix. 3,944 of 4,364 families touch H01L, with H10P, H01J and H10D as the next-largest secondary classes — crystal growth (C30B) and coating (C23C) are comparatively thin.
- The largest assignees show zero filings in the latest year. Firms including Axcelis, SK hynix, TSMC, Toshiba, NEC and Varian Semiconductor Equipment all show 0 filings in the most recent year — read this against the 18-month publication lag before concluding they have stopped.
Filing growth compares 2021 (73 records) with 2024 (45) — 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 4,364 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Ion implantation and doping sits at the physical core of transistor fabrication: it is how a wafer acquires the dopant profile that defines a junction. This landscape draws on 4,364 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, filtered to filings that explicitly claim implant profile, channeling, rapid thermal annealing, damage recovery or junction depth alongside an ion implantation, semiconductor doping or dopant activation search term. The classification footprint is concentrated in H01L (semiconductor devices) with meaningful secondary activity in H10P, H01J and H10D.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any chart will understate real activity. Treat the tail of the trend line as a floor, not a ceiling, and weight conclusions toward the 2017-2022 window where the picture is more complete.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 4,364-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those families distribute across IPC subclasses.
A peak-then-plateau trend
Filings rose from 65 in 2017 to a peak of 91 in 2018, then settled toward a midpoint of 60 by 2022 before tapering further — consistent with a technology whose core claim territory was staked out early and is now being defended rather than expanded.
H01L carries the field
H01L accounts for 3,944 of 4,364 records, roughly nine in ten families touching this subclass. H10P (1,098), H01J (718) and H10D (563) form the next tier; C30B crystal growth (85) and C23C coating (203) are the thinnest branches, which is where less-contested claim space tends to sit.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,364 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Ion Implantation and Doping with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ion implantation and doping and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited and most representative filings
WO2001071787A1 — Ultrashallow junctions by laser and rapid thermal annealing
Methods are provided for thermal processing of a semiconductor wafer that contains a dopant material. The wafer is irradiated with laser energy sufficient to activate the dopant material without melting the wafer. In addition, rapid thermal annealing of the wafer is performed at relatively low temperature to repair crystalline damage. The dopant activation is achieved with no measurable diffusion. The low temperature rapid thermal anneal repairs crystalline damage, so that devices have good mobilities and low leakage currents.Filed by Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, this filing pairs laser dopant activation with a separate low-temperature rapid thermal anneal step — a two-stage sequence aimed specifically at avoiding measurable dopant diffusion while still repairing crystal damage.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050191828A1 | Method for ion implanting insulator material to reduce dielectric constant | 621 |
| 2 | US6743738B2 | Dopant precursors and processes | 598 |
| 3 | US20030183856A1 | Semiconductor device having a retrograde dopant profile in a channel region and method for fabricating the sa… | 590 |
| 4 | US20090200494A1 | Techniques for cold implantation of carbon-containing species | 564 |
| 5 | US20060081558A1 | Plasma immersion ion implantation process | 506 |
| 6 | US20030230986A1 | Ion implantation ion source, system and method | 483 |
| 7 | US7989736B2 | System for heat treatment of semiconductor device | 476 |
| 8 | US20080044938A1 | Technique for low-temperature ion implantation | 475 |
| 9 | US5897348A | Low mask count self-aligned silicided CMOS transistors with a high electrostatic discharge resistance | 378 |
| 10 | US4419809A | Fabrication process of sub-micrometer channel length MOSFETs | 337 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not a ranking of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-outs from the filing and citation data that matter for anyone deciding where to file next or who to watch.
Volume has been declining since 2018
The 2018 peak of 91 families has not been matched since; by the 2022 midpoint annual volume had fallen to 60, and the partial latest-year figure of 2 continues that direction even after accounting for publication lag.
Nearly all activity sits inside one subclass
H01L covers roughly 90% of the corpus, meaning most competitive pressure and most prior art risk is concentrated there rather than spread evenly across the eight IPC subclasses this search touches.
US and Japan lead receiving offices
United States filings outnumber Japan's by more than two to one, with Europe, WIPO, South Korea and China each in the 240-380 range — a filing strategy skewed toward US and Japanese examination first.
Co-filing is limited and inventor-anchored
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest links pair a single assignee with a named individual inventor rather than a joint-venture structure — collaboration here is the exception, not the norm.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ion implantation and doping, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
Filing activity concentrates among a small group of equipment makers and integrated device manufacturers, several of whom show no filings at all in the latest partial year.
Axcelis anchors implant-tool IP
Axcelis Technologies appears among the strongest co-assignee pairings in the dataset, reflecting a filing pattern built around named individual inventors rather than joint corporate ventures.
Varian's tool-and-process claims run deep
Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates holds the representative filing in this dataset and appears in two of the strongest co-assignee pairings, indicating a sustained inventor team working implant and annealing process claims.
TSMC's filing pace has stopped cold
TSMC shows a -100% year-over-year change with zero filings in the latest year, though the 18-month publication lag means recent applications may simply not have surfaced yet.
Multiple IDMs show flat latest-year counts
SK hynix, Toshiba and NEC all register zero filings in the most recent year in this dataset, a pattern consistent across several long-tenured assignees rather than isolated to one firm.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Axcelis Technologies | 0 | — |
| SK hynix | 0 | — |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | 0 | -100% |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | — |
| NEC Corporation | 0 | — |
| Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates | 0 | — |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | — |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature, US/Japan-weighted claim space with thin coverage in a few adjacent branches. Two directions are worth pursuing depending on your role.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the H01L core
With nearly 90% of families sitting in H01L, any new implant or doping filing needs a targeted search against that subclass specifically, not just the topic as a whole.
Explore Eureka for IP counselScope the under-claimed branches before committing R&D
C30B crystal growth and C23C coating-based doping show materially lower filing density than the core — worth a closer technical read before assuming the space is occupied.
Explore Eureka for R&D leadsCommon questions about this landscape
The dataset shows filing concentrated among a handful of equipment makers and integrated device manufacturers, including Axcelis Technologies and Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, both of which also appear in the strongest co-assignee pairings in the corpus. Large IDMs such as SK hynix, Toshiba and NEC, and foundries such as TSMC, also hold substantial filing histories. None of these leading assignees show new filings in the most recent partial year, though that should be read against the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than as evidence of exit.
Filing volume has been declining since a 2018 peak of 91 families, falling to a midpoint of 60 by 2022 and continuing lower toward the most recent partial year. This pattern is typical of a technology area where the core claim territory around implant profile, channeling and rapid thermal annealing was established early and is now being maintained rather than expanded. It does not mean the underlying technology has stopped mattering commercially — dense prior art can simply mean the obvious claims are already taken.
H01L (semiconductor devices) dominates, covering 3,944 of the 4,364 families in this dataset — roughly nine in ten. H10P, H01J (electron and discharge tubes) and H10D form a meaningful secondary tier, while C30B (crystal growth) and C23C (coating and surface deposition) are comparatively thin. Anyone drafting new claims in this space should search H01L first, since that is where competitive density and prior-art risk concentrate.
The comparatively low filing counts in C30B crystal growth (85 families) and C23C coating-based deposition (203 families) suggest these branches carry less competitive density than the H01L core, though a low count can also mean lower commercial interest rather than pure white space — each candidate area needs its own technical read. Retrograde channel dopant profiles and cold implantation species control are narrower sub-areas worth checking specifically before drafting, since they sit adjacent to heavily cited prior art without being fully occupied by it.
WO2001071787A1, filed by Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, claims a two-stage thermal process: laser irradiation to activate dopant material without melting the wafer, followed by a separate low-temperature rapid thermal anneal to repair crystalline damage, with the stated result of no measurable dopant diffusion. A new filing that uses a single combined anneal step, a different activation energy source entirely, or achieves damage repair without the low-temperature RTA step would sit outside this specific claim sequence. It is a process-sequence patent rather than a materials patent, so alternative process architectures are the natural design-around route.
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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.