Linear Motor Advanced Materials Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filing has cooled since 2019. the peak year for this dataset, with the 2022 midpoint already back at half that level — this is a mature claim space, not a growth curve.
- H02K dominates the classification mix. all 58 families sit in electric motors and generators, with only small overlap into photolithography stages and motor-control subclasses.
- The most-cited record is over 25 years old. US6104108A's wedge magnet array still leads citations at 145, ahead of any filing from the last decade — influence here is inherited, not current.
Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 58 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of linear motor construction and the advanced materials that make them work — Halbach magnet arrays, low-loss core materials, and high-thrust magnet compositions. The search combines linear-motor terminology with material-specific claim language and IPC classes centred on H02K (electric motors and generators), so it captures magnet-array and core-material claims rather than general motor-control or drive-electronics filings.
Fifty-eight families span 2017 through mid-2026, filed across United States, Chinese, European, PCT, Japanese and German receiving offices. The concentration in H02K, with only marginal spillover into photolithography and motor-control subclasses, indicates a narrow, well-defined technical niche rather than a sprawling one.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trend and classification mix
Publication figures for the most recent year are always understated, since filings typically publish about 18 months after they are made — treat the 2026 figure as a floor, not a ceiling.
A flat-to-declining filing curve
Filings ran at 3 in 2017, rose to a peak of 6 in 2019, then eased back to 3 by the 2022 midpoint. That trajectory reads as a technology area that reached its claim-density ceiling several years ago rather than one still building momentum — new entrants are filing into art that has already been substantially staked out.
H02K carries the whole dataset
All 58 records classify into H02K (electric motors and generators); only 3 also touch G03F (photolithography and photomechanics, likely stage-motor applications), 3 touch H01F (magnets, inductors and transformers), and 2 touch H02P (motor control). The near-total concentration in one subclass means differentiation has to happen inside H02K's sub-groups, not by chasing a different classification entirely.
Shares are the percentage of the 58 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Linear Motor Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about linear motor advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe documents anchoring this space
Six-degree-of-freedom linear motor (US10651717B2)
Filed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment, the patent discloses a linear motor built from two mirror-symmetric Halbach magnet arrays with parallelogrammic cross-sections and a four-part coil group, each coil group's axis inclined at an angle theta to the arrays' offset sides. The geometry is aimed at generating six-degree-of-freedom motion from a single magnet-and-coil assembly rather than stacking separate actuators for each axis.Abstract condensed from the original filing for readability.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6104108A | Wedge magnet array for linear motor | 145 |
| 2 | US6003230A | Magnetic positioner having a single moving part | 86 |
| 3 | US20110012440A1 | Periodic magnetic field generation device, and linear motor and rotary motor using the same | 70 |
| 4 | JP2007110822A | Periodic magnetic field generator, manufacturing method therefor, and linear motor using this periodic magnet… | 68 |
| 5 | JP2011024379A | Periodic magnetic field generation device, and linear motor and rotary motor using the same | 56 |
| 6 | US20100052437A1 | Linear Motor With Patterned Magnet Arrays | 34 |
| 7 | US20050046282A1 | Movable assembly for cylinder type linear motor | 31 |
| 8 | US7501724B2 | Movable assembly for cylinder type linear motor | 21 |
| 9 | US7965010B2 | Linear motor with patterned magnet arrays | 20 |
| 10 | US20200266692A1 | High Force And Low Noise Linear Fine-Tooth Motor | 15 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had longer to accumulate references — read these as markers of foundational influence, not current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once family counts, citation weight and classification spread are read together.
The curve has already turned down
A halving of filing volume between the 2019 peak and the 2022 midpoint is a stronger signal than any single year's count. It suggests the core Halbach-array and low-loss-core claim space was substantially staked out by the early 2020s, and later entrants are filing narrower, more defensive claims into already-dense prior art.
One subclass, little lateral spread
Every family in this dataset classifies into H02K. That concentration means the competitive fight is happening inside H02K's sub-groups — magnet-array geometry, core lamination, winding configuration — rather than across a wide technology front. A freedom-to-operate search that stops at the subclass level will miss the differentiation that matters.
Foundational art is decades old
The most-cited record in the set, on wedge magnet arrays, predates the dataset's filing window entirely, and the next four most-cited records are similarly older periodic-magnetic-field disclosures from Japanese and US filers. Newer filings build on this base rather than displacing it — expect examiners to keep citing it against new Halbach and periodic-array claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to linear motor advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the activity has stalled
Recent-year momentum across the tracked assignees is uniformly flat: every leading filer identified in this dataset shows zero families in the latest year, consistent with the broader decline visible in the filing trend.
No active filer in the most recent year
Every assignee with meaningful volume in this dataset — spanning Japanese servo-motor makers, a Chinese lithography-stage equipment group, and established motor and magnetics firms — shows no filings in the latest tracked year. Combined with the 18-month publication lag, this could reflect either a genuine pause or filings still working through the pipeline.
Co-filing is sparse and mostly corporate-inventor pairs
Co-assignee links are limited to 10 pairs total, and the strongest ones connect a single corporate assignee to named inventors, or a Japanese entity to its own transliterated variant, rather than cross-company joint ventures. This is a field of independent filers, not consortium-driven development.
Filing strategy leans US and dual China/Europe
The United States receives the largest single share of filings, with China and the European Patent Office close behind and roughly matched. WIPO, Japan and Germany trail well behind, suggesting most applicants treat US, China and Europe as the primary markets worth direct protection rather than routing everything through a single PCT entry point.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sanyo Denki Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (Group) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Yaskawa Electric Corporation | 0 | — |
| Bose Corporation | 0 | — |
| KOMP ACT SA | 0 | — |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 0 | — |
| Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Yaskawa Electric Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature, narrowly classified field with stalled recent filing — the next steps are about testing that read against your own product claims.
Map your claims against the H02K sub-groups
Since all 58 families sit inside one IPC subclass, a useful next step is checking exactly which H02K sub-groups your own magnet-array or core-material claims would fall into, and how dense each sub-group already is.
Run a sub-group breakdown in EurekaVerify the flat trend isn't a publication-lag artefact
Zero recent-year momentum across every leading assignee could mean genuine market pause, or filings not yet published. Pulling application-stage data alongside granted families would confirm which explanation holds.
Check application-stage filings in EurekaStress-test the white-space chips against full claim text
The under-claimed branches flagged here are based on filing density, not a claim-by-claim read. Before committing R&D or filing resource, run the specific claim language you're considering against the full-text corpus.
Search full claim text in EurekaCommon questions on linear motor advanced materials patents
In this dataset, advanced material claims centre on Halbach magnet arrays, low-loss core materials and high-thrust magnet compositions, rather than general motor-control or drive-electronics claims. The search string specifically pairs linear-motor terminology with material-specific language like magnet array and core material, and restricts to IPC classes covering electric motors, magnets and inductors. That combination is why the results concentrate almost entirely in H02K rather than spreading across broader motor-technology classes.
The dataset's leading assignees include Japanese servo and motor manufacturers, a Chinese lithography-equipment group, and established Western motor and magnetics companies, several of which also appear in the co-assignee pairs. None of these leading filers shows any families published in the most recent tracked year, though that may partly reflect the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication. The most historically influential single record, by citation count, is a wedge magnet array patent that predates the current filing window entirely.
The filing trend in this dataset does not show growth. Filings rose from 3 in 2017 to a peak of 6 in 2019, then fell back to 3 by the 2022 midpoint, and every leading assignee shows zero filings in the most recent year. That pattern points to a field that reached a claim-density peak around 2019 and has been flat or contracting since, rather than one still expanding into new territory.
Filing density inside H02K is not uniform across every sub-group. Branches such as low-loss laminated core stacking methods, high-thrust magnet compositions that avoid rare-earth content, thermal management specific to Halbach arrays, and manufacturing methods for periodic magnetic field generators show visibly thinner coverage than the core magnet-array geometry claims. Any of these would need a full-text claim search before committing, since density estimates from classification data alone can miss narrowly worded existing claims.
US10651717B2 claims a specific six-degree-of-freedom linear motor architecture built from two mirror-symmetric Halbach magnet arrays with parallelogrammic cross-sections and a four-coil-group arrangement, each coil axis inclined at a defined angle theta. It does not block linear motor designs generally, or even all Halbach-array motors — it blocks this particular geometric relationship between magnet array shape and coil axis angle. A designer using a different array cross-section, a different coil-group count, or a non-mirrored array arrangement would likely sit outside its literal claim scope, though a full claim chart is the only way to confirm that for a specific design.
Research Linear Motor Advanced Materials in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole linear motor advanced materials corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.