Laser Diode Wafer Test & Binning Patent Snapshot
The laser diode wafer test and binning patent space is a nascent, tightly contested field with 6 patent families in scope and a highly fragmented applicant structure at the top. Filing activity is in a growth stage, with the United States as the dominant jurisdiction and H01S (Lasers & stimulated emission) accounting for the overwhelming share of technical coverage.
A nascent field with a flat-top ranking and US-centric filing
No single applicant has pulled ahead: Ricoh, NeoPhotonics, Jabil, Cutting Edge Optronics, TRW, and Furukawa Electric each hold the top position with identical patent-record counts, signalling that competitive differentiation through patent volume alone is not yet a meaningful lever.
The top five filers account for 25% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, indicating a highly fragmented field rather than a concentrated oligopoly. There is no meaningful tier gap at the top; the ranking is essentially flat across the leading names.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ricoh Co Ltd | 5 | |
| 2 | NeoPhotonics Corporation | 5 | |
| 3 | Jabil Inc | 5 | |
| 4 | Cutting Edge Optronics | 5 | |
| 5 | TRW Inc | 5 | |
| 6 | Furukawa Electric Co Ltd | 5 | |
| 7 | Polaroid Corporation | 4 | |
| 8 | Yama Capital LLC | 4 | |
| 9 | Sony Group Corporation | 4 | |
| 10 | Renishaw plc | 3 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Canon Inc | 3 | |
| 12 | Laserfront Technologies | 3 | |
| 13 | Rohm Co Ltd | 3 | |
| 14 | Thorlabs Quantum Electronics Inc | 2 | |
| 15 | Fujitsu Ltd | 2 | |
| 16 | NECSEL Intellectual Property Inc | 2 | |
| 17 | Panasonic Holdings Corporation | 2 | |
| 18 | TSUNAMI PHOTONICS LIMITED B & D CENTURY COURT 100 … | 2 | |
| 19 | Novalux Acquisition Corp | 2 | |
| 20 | Sharp Fukuyama Laser Co Ltd | 2 |
This flat-top structure suggests that the field is early-stage and that no incumbent has yet established a visible IP position. For an R&D team, this implies that a focused, well-scoped filing program could establish a defensible position relatively quickly.
The most recent 18–24 months of filing data are subject to publication lag and are likely under-counted; apparent activity in 2024–2025 should be read as a minimum, not a ceiling. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Growing activity concentrated in laser physics, with sparse test-specific coverage
The annual filing trend reveals sparse but accelerating activity, while the technology composition chart exposes a large gap between the core laser physics branch and the dedicated testing and measurement branches.
Annual filing trend
Filing volume was minimal from 2017 through 2022 (at most one record per year), then picked up in 2024. The lifecycle evidence classifies the field as Growth, with annual filings still rising; 2024–2025 figures are understated by publication lag and should be treated as a floor.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01S (Lasers & stimulated emission) is visible in the branch mix, reflecting that most patents address laser device performance rather than dedicated wafer test or binning methodology. H01L (Semiconductor devices) is the second branch, followed at much lower frequency by G01M (Testing machine & structure balance), G01N (Material analysis & testing), and G01R (Electric & magnetic measurement) — the branches most directly relevant to test and binning workflows.
↗ 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.
A method of monitoring the performance of a semico…
The invention describes a method of monitoring the performance of a semiconductor laser diode arrangement (10) comprising at least one semiconductor laser diode module (11) comprising a plurality of semiconductor laser diodes (D), which method comprises the steps of driving a semiconductor laser diode module (11) at a specific current value, monitoring the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smart laser diode array assembly and operating met… | 113 |
| 2 | Light source apparatus and optical communication m… | 100 |
| 3 | Surface-emission laser diode operable in the wavel… | 89 |
| 4 | Surface-emission laser diode operable in the wavel… | 64 |
| 5 | Tap output collimator | 63 |
| 6 | Surface-emission laser diode operable in the wavel… | 62 |
| 7 | Semiconductor laser control apparatus and image fo… | 36 |
| 8 | Smart laser diode array assembly | 35 |
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.
Ricoh Co Ltd
Ricoh’s patent-record portfolio in this space concentrates on H01S 5 (semiconductor lasers and stimulated emission) with secondary coverage in optical elements (G02B 6) and a single record in H01S 3. This reflects a laser-performance orientation rather than dedicated wafer test methodology. Applicant momentum data is not available in evidence for trajectory assessment.
patent records: 5Cutting Edge Optronics
Cutting Edge Optronics holds coverage across both H01S 3 and H01S 5, the two sub-classes of the laser physics branch, making it one of the broadest technically scoped filers at the top tier. Like Ricoh, its records are oriented toward laser device performance. Applicant momentum data is not available in evidence.
patent records: 5Frequently asked questions
The corpus comprises 6 patent families in scope. This is a small, nascent field; the limited corpus size means that individual patents carry significant weight and that competitive dynamics can shift quickly with a small number of new filings.
Ricoh, NeoPhotonics, Jabil, Cutting Edge Optronics, TRW, and Furukawa Electric are all tied at the top of the applicant ranking by patent-record count. Polaroid, Yama Capital, and Sony follow at the next tier.
The field is classified as Growth, with annual filings still rising and the most recent years understated by publication lag. The 200% multi-year growth rate supports this classification, though the absolute filing volumes remain very low.
The United States leads by patent-record count, followed by Japan and Europe (EPO). Israel and WIPO (PCT) are secondary, while China and Canada are present at lower levels.
G01M (Testing machine & structure balance) and G01R (Electric & magnetic measurement) each have very low record counts — 6 and 3 respectively — despite being directly relevant to wafer-level test and parametric binning workflows. G01N (Material analysis & testing) is also sparse at 6 records.
The most active co-filing relationships identified are between individual inventors Okumura Tsugunori and Ikoma Toshiaki each paired with Furukawa Electric (5 co-filed records each), and between Neal O’Gorman and Tsunami Photonics (3 records). Broad cross-organizational collaboration is not yet evident in the evidence.
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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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