Magnetic Components for Power Conversion Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 35 families and has since declined to a handful a year, suggesting the core claim space around power inductor and transformer construction is largely staked out rather than still opening up.
- H01F dominates at 306 of 363 records with H02M power-conversion claims a distant second at 69, showing most protected value sits in the magnetic component itself, not the converter topology around it.
- No tracked assignee filed in the latest year across the leading names in this dataset, recent-year momentum reads zero — a signal that active prosecution has moved elsewhere or slowed industry-wide.
Filing growth compares 2021 (18 records) with 2024 (9) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 363 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families claiming power inductors, high-frequency transformers and related magnetic components for power converters, filtered to documents that address core loss, winding loss, saturation behaviour, planar magnetics or thermal rise. The scope sits at the intersection of magnetic component design (H01F) and power conversion circuitry (H02M), with smaller but present activity in powder metallurgy, alloys and coating classes that feed core material development.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend line will understate actual filing activity and should be read as provisional.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 363-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how that volume splits across IPC subclasses.
A 2017 peak followed by sustained decline
Filings rose to 35 in 2017, the high point of the tracked window, then fell through the following years to just 3 by 2022 and effectively zero by the most recent year. That trajectory reads as flat-to-declining rather than a market still ramping filings, though the final one to two years are undercounted due to publication lag.
H01F carries the claim weight
306 of 363 records sit in H01F (magnets, inductors and transformers), versus 69 in H02M (power conversion circuitry). Powder metallurgy (B22F, 21 records), alloys (C22C, 7) and coating (C23C, 6) appear as smaller clusters tied to core and winding material work, while amplifier (H03F) and PCB/assembly (H05K) classes each contribute 9 records at the component-integration edge.
Shares are the percentage of the 363 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Magnetic Components for Power Conversion with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about magnetic components for power conversion and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this space
Power inductor evaluation apparatus and power inductor evaluation program
A power inductor evaluation apparatus stores a DC-DC converter simulation model built around the equivalent circuit of a power inductor, parameterised by a DC superimposition characteristics slope and a saturation current. The determination unit runs the simulation with those parameters and decides whether a given power inductor is usable in the target converter based on the simulation outcome, rather than requiring physical prototyping.Filed by Murata Manufacturing, published 2018-11-06 as US10120037B2.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4047138A | Power inductor and transformer with low acoustic noise air gap | 120 |
| 2 | US4845606A | High frequency matrix transformer | 109 |
| 3 | US20140167897A1 | Power inductor and method of manufacturing the same | 89 |
| 4 | US20140184374A1 | Power inductor and method of manufacturing the same | 88 |
| 5 | US20060158297A1 | Power inductor with reduced DC current saturation | 57 |
| 6 | US20190189338A1 | Power inductor | 51 |
| 7 | US20170178794A1 | Modular integrated multi-phase, non-coupled winding power inductor and methods of manufacture | 49 |
| 8 | US20140313003A1 | High current power inductor | 47 |
| 9 | US20180308612A1 | Power inductor | 41 |
| 10 | US20170256353A1 | Power inductor and method for manufacturing same | 41 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — treat them as markers of influence on subsequent filings, not as a ranking of current technical relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once filing volume, IPC composition and citation concentration are read together.
A closed rather than opening window
Filing volume climbed to 35 families in 2017 and has fallen in most years since, reaching 3 at the 2022 midpoint and effectively nothing in the latest tracked year. New entrants filing broad claims on core power inductor or transformer structures now face a denser prior-art base than they would have a decade ago.
Value sits in the component, not the circuit
H01F accounts for the large majority of records, with H02M power-conversion claims a distant second at 69. Filers protecting converter-level topology innovations are working in a comparatively less crowded IPC class than those protecting the magnetic component itself.
Old filings still anchor the field
The most-cited record in this dataset, US4047138A on low-acoustic-noise air gap design, predates the 2015 coverage window and still draws the heaviest citation count tracked here. Several of the next most-cited records address power inductor saturation and DC current handling, indicating those specific mechanisms remain reference points for newer filings.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to magnetic components for power conversion, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and where activity has gone quiet
Filing activity concentrates among a set of established electronics and component manufacturers, several of which co-file with named individual inventors on overlapping applications.
Concentrated inventor teams at the top filer
The strongest co-assignee pairings in the dataset all involve the same corporate assignee filing repeatedly alongside a small set of named inventors, each pairing appearing four times. That pattern points to a stable internal R&D team producing incremental filings rather than broad cross-company collaboration.
Recent-year activity has gone flat across the board
Every one of the assignees with the deepest filing history in this dataset shows zero families in the latest tracked year. Given the 18-month publication lag, some of this is an artefact of timing, but the multi-year decline visible in the trend line suggests genuine slowing rather than a reporting gap alone.
US and EPO lead, China a close third
The United States receives the largest share of filings at 147, ahead of the EPO at 64 and China at 54. Japan, Taiwan and WIPO/PCT each account for smaller but non-trivial shares, indicating this technology is prosecuted across multiple major jurisdictions rather than concentrated in one.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Moda-Innochips Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Marvell International Trading Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Cooper Technologies Company | 0 | — |
| Microchip Technology Incorporated | 0 | — |
| Shenzhen Sunlord Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| e2v Technologies (UK) Limited | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up work depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy or identifying open claim space.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top-cited prior art
Before filing on power inductor or transformer core structures, check claim scope against the highest-cited records in this dataset, several of which address saturation and air-gap design mechanisms still referenced by newer filings.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTrack the material-science adjacent classes
B22F, C22C and C23C activity is smaller in volume but ties directly into core and winding material development, an area where the main H01F cluster has not fully claimed the space.
Explore adjacent IPC activity in EurekaWatch for renewed filing activity
With every leading assignee showing zero filings in the latest year, a resumption of filing from any of them would be a meaningful signal worth monitoring given the current flat trend.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Filing activity in this dataset concentrates among a group of established electronics and passive-component manufacturers rather than a single dominant holder. Several of the leading assignees also show repeated co-filing with the same named inventors, suggesting stable internal teams rather than broad industry consolidation around one player. The full ranking, updated with each data refresh, is rendered in the assignee table on this page rather than reproduced here, since ranking order shifts as new publications are indexed.
Based on the tracked filings, no: volume peaked at 35 families in 2017 and has declined through most years since, down to 3 at the 2022 midpoint and effectively nothing in the latest year. Some of that recent drop reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a true stop in activity. But the multi-year downward trend predates the most recent unpublished window, so the underlying pattern looks like a genuine slowdown in new filing, not just a reporting artefact.
H01F covers magnets, inductors and transformers as components — the physical construction, core material and winding design. H02M covers power conversion circuitry, meaning how those components are used within converter topologies such as DC-DC or AC-DC circuits. In this dataset, H01F accounts for the large majority of records at 306 of 363, while H02M contributes 69, indicating most of the protected intellectual property addresses the magnetic component itself rather than the surrounding circuit design.
The dataset shows thinner filing activity in classes adjacent to the core H01F cluster, including powder metallurgy for core materials (B22F, 21 records), alloy composition (C22C, 7) and surface coating (C23C, 6). These smaller clusters suggest that material-level innovation feeding into core and winding loss reduction is less densely claimed than component-level structural design. Planar magnetics thermal management and PCB-embedded transformer structures also appear less represented relative to the volume in the main H01F cluster.
US10120037B2, assigned to Murata Manufacturing, claims a simulation and evaluation method for determining whether a given power inductor is usable in a target DC-DC converter, based on its DC superimposition characteristics slope and saturation current parameters. It matters because it protects a design verification workflow rather than a physical structure, which means it can constrain how competitors validate inductor designs for converter use even if their core and winding construction differs. Anyone building simulation-based qualification tools for power inductors should review its claim scope directly rather than assuming it only affects physical hardware.
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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.