Laser Diode Degradation Monitoring Patent Snapshot
The laser diode degradation monitoring field is a small, mature corpus led by a tight cluster of telecommunications and photonics incumbents, with Motorola and Fujitsu holding the top two positions. Activity has eased from its 2018 peak and the competitive structure is concentrated, leaving limited but identifiable adjacent branches for new entrants.
Motorola and Fujitsu lead a concentrated incumbent field
Motorola leads the applicant ranking followed closely by Fujitsu, PSC, Corning, and Hitachi rounding out the top five — together they account for the top-five filers’ share of the ranked applicants visible in this query in this corpus.
The top five filers hold 23% of the combined total among the ranked applicants visible in this query, indicating moderate concentration at the top with a long tail of single-digit holders. The gap between the leader and the fifth-ranked applicant is narrow, suggesting competitive parity among the top tier rather than a single visible actor.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Motorola Inc | 10 | |
| 2 | Fujitsu Ltd | 9 | |
| 3 | PSC Inc | 7 | |
| 4 | Corning Inc | 7 | |
| 5 | Hitachi Ltd | 6 | |
| 6 | Trumpf Photonic Components GmbH | 6 | |
| 7 | Xieon Networks S.a.r.l. | 5 | |
| 8 | Lumentum Operations LLC | 4 | |
| 9 | Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Ltd | 4 | |
| 10 | Robert Bosch GmbH | 4 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Finisar Corporation | 4 | |
| 12 | Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte Ltd | 4 | |
| 13 | GemFire Corporation | 4 | |
| 14 | Lumentum Technology UK Ltd | 4 | |
| 15 | Xerox Corporation | 4 | |
| 16 | JDS Uniphase Corporation | 4 | |
| 17 | Toshiba Corporation | 4 | |
| 18 | Alcon Inc | 4 | |
| 19 | Blue 425 LLC | 3 | |
| 20 | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 3 |
Incumbent positions held by Motorola, Fujitsu, and Hitachi reflect deep integration of degradation monitoring into broader laser and optical communications portfolios, making it difficult for new entrants to displace them on core H01S claims without differentiated technical approaches.
Filings from approximately 2023 onward are subject to standard patent publication lag and should be treated as under-counted; the apparent absence of 2024–2026 records does not represent a real cessation of activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing volume has eased from its 2018 peak; H01S dominates technology mix
Annual filing volume peaked in 2018 and has been easing since, consistent with a declining lifecycle stage. The technology composition is heavily weighted toward laser and stimulated-emission fundamentals, with several adjacent branches attracting comparatively modest coverage.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings reached their highest point in 2018 and have oscillated at lower levels since; the 2023 uptick to six records warrants watching, though 2024 and beyond are under-counted due to publication lag and should not be read as zero activity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01S (Lasers and stimulated emission) is overwhelmingly visible in the technology mix; G02B, H01L, G11B, H04B, and G06K each carry meaningful but substantially smaller counts, highlighting where adjacent technical coverage thins out.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Laser diode package having an optical power monito…
A laser diode package having an optical power monitoring function includes a monitor diode for monitoring an optical power of the light emitted from a laser diode. In the laser diode package, an optical member has a projection window for advancing the light emitted from the laser diode to a desired direction and a reflection surface from which the light… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Differentially pumped optical amplifer and mopa de… | 163 |
| 2 | Tunable external cavity laser | 151 |
| 3 | Multiwavelength actively mode-locked external cavi… | 149 |
| 4 | Optical measurement instrument for living body sem… | 99 |
| 5 | Semiconductor laser package with power monitoring … | 90 |
| 6 | Packaging of high power semiconductor lasers | 76 |
| 7 | Packaging of high power semiconductor lasers | 69 |
| 8 | Semiconductor laser package with power monitoring … | 57 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Motorola Inc
Motorola holds the top position with 10 patent records, focused almost exclusively on H01S 5 (semiconductor lasers and stimulated emission), with minimal secondary coverage in H01L 23 and H01S 3. No momentum trend data is available for Motorola in the recent window, suggesting a stable but not actively growing portfolio in this specific topic.
patent records: 10Fujitsu Ltd
Fujitsu holds 9 patent records and distinguishes itself through a broader secondary emphasis spanning H01S 5, G06K 1 (data recognition), and G11B 7 (optical information storage) — the widest multi-branch spread among top applicants. This breadth indicates Fujitsu’s degradation monitoring work is embedded in optical storage and scanning system contexts, not purely telecommunications.
patent records: 9Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 30 patent families in scope. This is a small, specialist corpus reflecting a niche but technically well-defined area within broader laser and photonics IP.
Motorola Inc holds the top position by patent records, with its portfolio concentrated in H01S 5 (semiconductor lasers and stimulated emission) and minimal secondary coverage in H01L 23 and H01S 3.
The field is classified as Decline, with annual filings easing back from the 2018 peak and a recent-window growth rate of -27%. Core claims in the visible H01S branch are largely staked by incumbents.
The United States is the lead filing office by a wide margin, followed by Europe (EPO) and WIPO (PCT) as secondary jurisdictions. Japan and China hold comparatively sparse patent records in this monitoring-specific corpus.
The only documented co-filing partnerships are between Trumpf Photonic Components and Robert Bosch (4 co-filed records) and between Trumpf Photonic Components and Bosch Sensortec (2 records). Collaborative IP development is otherwise rare in this corpus.
G01J (Radiation and light measurement) and H02H (Protective circuit arrangements) are among the sparsest branches with plausible technical relevance to degradation monitoring. G01J holds 5 patent records and H02H holds 1, compared to 160 for the visible H01S class.
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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.
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