Ion Implantation Process Control Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2017 peak. Twelve records filed that year against a 2022 midpoint of three — the claim space built out early and has not reheated.
- H01L and H01J dominate but do not overlap completely. 223 records sit in semiconductor devices and 197 in electron/discharge tubes, with only partial overlap — beam-hardware claims and device-process claims are often filed separately.
- The US is the primary filing venue by a wide margin. 147 US receiving-office filings compare to 48 PCT, 41 EPO and 25 each in China and Japan — a US-first filing strategy still defines this field.
What ion implantation process control patents actually cover
Ion implantation process control covers the instrumentation and methods that keep dopant dose, beam angle and damage profile within spec during semiconductor fabrication — dose uniformity control, channeling control, and post-implant damage annealing. The IPC classes anchoring this search, H01L21/265, H01L21/324 and H01J37/317, span both the device-fabrication side of the process and the ion-implanter hardware that delivers the beam. Because the two sides are classified differently, a company’s implant tool patents and its process-integration patents frequently sit in separate filing families even when they describe the same production line.
The 337 families tracked here span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with filings concentrated in the earlier half of that window. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the last one to two years in any trend chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — treat the most recent bars as provisional, not as evidence of a slowdown by themselves.
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Filing trend and technology composition
The dataset spans 337 patent families published between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, drawn from a search string targeting dose uniformity, channeling control and damage annealing claims inside three core IPC classes.
A field that peaked and plateaued
Filings hit 12 in 2017, their peak so far, and had fallen to a midpoint of 3 by 2022 — a flat-to-declining trajectory rather than a growth curve. Combined with the publication lag, this points to a technology whose core claim space was staked out early and has since seen incremental rather than expansive filing.
Two overlapping but distinct claim clusters
H01L (223 records) and H01J (197 records) between them account for most of the corpus, reflecting the split between semiconductor-device process claims and ion-beam/discharge-tube hardware claims. Smaller clusters in C23C (coating and surface deposition, 52) and G05D (control of non-electric variables, 8) mark adjacent process-control and materials angles that are far less crowded.
Shares are the percentage of the 337 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Ion Implantation Process Control with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ion implantation process control and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe patents other filings build on
US9805913B2 — Ion beam dimension control for ion implantation process and apparatus, and advanced process control
A process control method for ion implantation methods and apparatuses, producing a high-dosage area on a substrate to compensate for noted non-uniformities. Separately controllable electrode sets and positionable beam blockers reduce and reposition the ion beam incident on the substrate, while substrate scan speed can be dynamically changed during the pass.Filed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., published 2017-10-31 — squarely inside the field's peak filing year.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5834786A | High current ribbon beam ion implanter | 155 |
| 2 | US4980562A | Method and apparatus for high efficiency scanning in an ion implanter | 150 |
| 3 | US4539217A | Dose control method | 103 |
| 4 | US5840590A | Impurity gettering in silicon using cavities formed by helium implantation and annealing | 95 |
| 5 | US6639227B1 | Apparatus and method for charged particle filtering and ion implantation | 83 |
| 6 | US20020110948A1 | Defined sacrifical region via ion implantation for micro-opto-electro-mechanical system (MOEMS) applications | 81 |
| 7 | US5672541A | Ultra-shallow junction semiconductor device fabrication | 78 |
| 8 | US4587433A | Dose control apparatus | 77 |
| 9 | US5851908A | Method for introduction of an impurity dopant in SiC, a semiconductor device formed by the method and a use o… | 76 |
| 10 | US4062699A | Method for fabricating diffusion self-aligned short channel MOS device | 71 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older, foundational filings — read them as a signal of influence on later claim drafting, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
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Three findings shape where to look next: a plateaued filing curve, a hardware/process split in the IPC mix, and a US-centric filing footprint.
The core claim space was staked out by the late 2010s
Filings peaked at 12 in 2017 and dropped to a midpoint of 3 by 2022, with the most recent tracked year showing 0 — consistent with the roughly 18-month publication lag rather than an abrupt stop. The practical read is that foundational dose-control and channeling-control methods were largely claimed in the 2015-2019 window.
Device-process claims and beam-hardware claims run in parallel
H01L (semiconductor devices) and H01J (electron and discharge tubes) each carry a large share of the corpus without full overlap, meaning implanter-hardware improvements and wafer-process integration methods are frequently patented separately, sometimes by different divisions of the same company.
A US-first filing strategy still dominates
United States filings (147) outnumber PCT (48), EPO (41), China (25), Japan (25) and South Korea (13) combined against most individual offices, signalling that applicants still treat the US as the primary jurisdiction to secure before extending internationally.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ion implantation process control, with the prior art for and against each one.
The assignee landscape
Filing activity concentrates among a small set of implant-tool and foundry names, with co-filing pairs pointing to close inventor-assignee relationships rather than broad industry consortia.
Co-assignment is narrow and inventor-linked
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the corpus, and the strongest links pair a single materials company with named individual inventors rather than with other corporate assignees — a pattern typical of a mature field where cross-company joint filing is rare.
No assignee shows fresh-year filing activity
Every leading assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the major implant-tool makers and foundries, shows 0 filings in the latest tracked year, with at least one showing a -100% year-on-year change. This is consistent with the publication lag rather than a true stop in R&D.
A moderate, well-defined corpus
At 337 families this is a focused rather than sprawling landscape, small enough that a single well-drafted claim can meaningfully shift freedom-to-operate analysis for a new entrant, unlike crowded fields where any one filing is diluted among thousands.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates | 0 | — |
| Advanced Technology Materials, Inc. (ATMI) | 0 | — |
| Axcelis Technologies, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | 0 | — |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | — |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Entegris, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Semiquip, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific follow-up questions depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy, or spotting open claim territory.
Map claims against the H01L/H01J split
Pull the full claim sets for the top-cited records in each IPC cluster separately, since hardware and process-integration claims rarely overlap and a search limited to one class will miss the other.
Explore the full IPC breakdown in EurekaCheck the thin branches before committing R&D spend
G05D and coating-combined-with-implant filings are a fraction of the H01L/H01J volume — worth a closer look before assuming the space is closed.
Run a white space query in EurekaTrack the publication lag before reading the latest year as decline
The 2022-onward drop partly reflects filings still working through publication; re-run the trend query periodically rather than treating the current chart as final.
Set up trend monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
In this dataset it refers to claims covering dose uniformity control, channeling control, damage annealing and general process control methods used during ion implantation, classified under IPC codes H01L21/265, H01L21/324 and H01J37/317. These span both the semiconductor-device fabrication side and the ion-implanter hardware side of the process. A claim search limited to one IPC class alone will typically miss related filings sitting in the other, since the two are classified separately even when describing the same production step.
The trend data shows 12 filings in 2017, the peak year, dropping to a midpoint of 3 by 2022. Part of that decline is real — foundational dose-control and channeling-control methods were largely staked out in the mid-to-late 2010s, leaving less open ground for entirely new baseline claims. Part of it is also an artefact of publication lag, since patent applications typically take around 18 months to publish, so the most recent one to two years in any chart will always understate actual filing activity.
The corpus is led by a concentrated group of implant-tool manufacturers and foundries, though every one of the tracked leading assignees shows zero filings in the latest tracked year — consistent with publication lag rather than an actual halt in R&D. Rather than naming a single leader, the useful read is that filing activity clusters tightly at the top with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants, so a full assignee ranking is more informative than any one name.
The smaller IPC clusters — G05D (control of non-electric variables, 8 records) and the overlap between C23C coating/surface deposition and implant processes (52 records) — carry far less filing density than the core H01L and H01J clusters. That does not guarantee the space is unclaimed by non-patent prior art, but it does mean fewer competing patent claims to design around for anyone pursuing real-time channeling-angle feedback or combined coating-and-implant process integration.
Citation count reflects influence on later filings and drafting language, not current legal enforceability. Patents from the 1980s and 1990s in this list, such as the 1985-era dose control method or the 1990s high-current ribbon beam implanter patents, have almost certainly expired given standard 20-year terms, meaning their claimed methods are now free to practice. Their continued high citation count matters for understanding how current claim language evolved, not for freedom-to-operate today.
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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.