Laser Diode Temperature/Humidity Reliability Patent Snapshot
This is a small, maturing corpus of 19 patent families dominated by a handful of defense, telecom, and optics incumbents, with Metrologic Instruments leading on patent records. Annual filing volume has eased sharply from its 2017 peak, signaling a field in decline where new entrant activity is minimal.
Metrologic Instruments leads a concentrated, incumbent-heavy field
Metrologic Instruments Inc holds the top position with 46 patent records, well ahead of NEC Corp at 24 and Cutting Edge Optronics at 20, reflecting a corpus where early movers established strong positions and filing has since slowed substantially.
The top five filers account for 40% of the combined total across the ranked applicants visible in this query, indicating a moderately concentrated field. The tier gap between the leader and the next ranked applicants is notable, though the absolute corpus size is small.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metrologic Instruments Inc | 46 | |
| 2 | NEC Corp | 24 | |
| 3 | Cutting Edge Optronics | 20 | |
| 4 | Northrop Grumman Systems Corp | 16 | |
| 5 | Mitsubishi Electric Corp | 9 | |
| 6 | NORTHROP GRUMMAN SPACE & MISSION SYSTEMS CORP | 8 | |
| 7 | MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings Inc | 8 | |
| 8 | Panasonic Holdings Corp | 8 | |
| 9 | Panasonic Semiconductor Solutions Co Ltd | 8 | |
| 10 | nLIGHT Inc | 8 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Sharp Corp | 8 | |
| 12 | Hitachi Ltd | 7 | |
| 13 | Sony Group Corp | 6 | |
| 14 | Lasertel Inc | 6 | |
| 15 | Northrop Grumman Corp | 5 | |
| 16 | NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE CORP | 5 | |
| 17 | Fujitsu Ltd | 4 | |
| 18 | Renesas Electronics Corp | 4 | |
| 19 | GemFire Corp | 4 | |
| 20 | Nichia Corp | 4 |
The incumbents’ entrenched positions — spanning defense contractors such as Northrop Grumman entities, Japanese electronics majors including Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic, and specialized laser firms — leave limited room for new entrants without differentiated technical angles.
The most recent 18–24 months of filings are subject to publication lag and likely undercount true recent activity; the apparent absence of filings in 2024–2026 should be interpreted with that caveat. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing activity has contracted sharply from 2017; laser emission dominates the technology mix
The annual trend and technology composition charts together reveal a field that is past its activity peak and technically anchored in core laser and optics classes, with a long tail of adjacent application areas.
Annual filing trend
Filings peaked in 2017 at 9 records and have since declined steeply, reaching zero in multiple subsequent years. The recent-window growth of -80% confirms the field is in contraction. Note that 2024–2026 data remain subject to publication lag and may understate true recent activity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01S (Lasers and stimulated emission) is visible in with 258 patent records, reflecting the core focus on laser diode device physics. G02B (Optical elements and systems) is the next largest branch at 70 records, followed by several data-recognition and computing classes — G06K, G06C, G06F, and G07B — each clustered around 45–46 records, likely tied to Metrologic’s barcode-scanning application context. H01L (Semiconductor devices) sits at 20 records, representing an adjacent but under-served branch.
↗ 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.
Semiconductor laser device and method of manufactu…
In the semiconductor laser device of the present invention, a P-type diffusion region <b>3</b>A is disposed in an N<sup>−</sup> epitaxial layer <b>2</b> of a silicon submount <b>16</b>, and an N-type diffusion region <b>4</b>A is disposed in this P-type diffusion region <b>3</b>A. The P-type diffusion region <b>3</b>A and the N-type diffusion region… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apparatus for imaging light from a laser diode ont… | 293 |
| 2 | Packaged laser diode array system and method with … | 212 |
| 3 | Automatic vehicle identification (AVI) system empl… | 152 |
| 4 | Method of speckle-noise pattern reduction and appa… | 144 |
| 5 | Diode laser array | 140 |
| 6 | Hand-supportable planar laser illumination and ima… | 130 |
| 7 | Method of and system for producing high-resolution… | 129 |
| 8 | Laser diode packaging | 126 |
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.
Metrologic Instruments Inc
Metrologic holds 46 patent records, the largest position in the corpus. Its technology emphasis spans G06K data recognition and presentation, H01S5 laser emission, and G02B optical systems — a combination reflecting its integration of laser diodes into barcode and imaging applications. No recent momentum data is available, consistent with the broader field decline. Its broad cross-class coverage makes it a key obstacle for applicants targeting optical scanning applications of laser diode reliability.
patent records: 46NEC Corp
NEC Corp holds 24 patent records and concentrates its activity in H01S5 laser emission (26 records at the sub-class level), with secondary coverage in G02B optical fiber elements and H10P semiconductor devices. NEC co-filed 5 records with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, indicating a collaborative approach in telecom-oriented laser reliability. No recent momentum shift is recorded, consistent with the field’s declining trajectory.
patent records: 24Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 19 patent families in scope. Patent record counts across jurisdictions and IPC classes can exceed this figure because a single family may be filed in multiple offices and assigned to multiple IPC classes.
Metrologic Instruments Inc leads with 46 patent records, ahead of NEC Corp at 24 and Cutting Edge Optronics at 20. These three form a clear first tier.
The field is in a Decline lifecycle stage. Annual filings peaked in 2017 at 9 records and have eased sharply since, with a recent-window growth figure of -80%. The most recent years reflect publication lag and may undercount, but the trend is one of contraction.
The United States is the visible filing jurisdiction with 163 patent records. Japan follows at 37 and Europe (EPO) at 34. China has only 4 records, indicating limited historical filing activity there.
Co-filing activity is limited. The most active pair is NEC Corp and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp with 5 joint records. Hitachi and Renesas Eastern Japan Semiconductor share 1 joint record. Beyond these, the field has developed primarily through independent corporate programs.
G01J (Radiation and light measurement) and G01M (Testing of machines and structural balance) each have only 1 patent record, making test and characterization methodologies for laser diode reliability qualification the sparsest area relative to their technical relevance. H01L (Semiconductor devices) at 20 records is also relatively sparse given its direct relevance to degradation mechanisms.
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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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