Medical Ultrasound Transducer Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filings have flattened, not grown. the field peaked at 65 families in 2018 and sat at 47 by the 2022 midpoint — this is a mature, occupied claim space rather than a growing one.
- Diagnosis and vibration-generation dominate the IPC mix. A61B accounts for 449 of 504 families and B06B for 179, meaning most claim activity sits on imaging/therapy integration and transducer mechanics, not on downstream signal processing (G06T at only 43).
- No assignee is filing at momentum right now. every tracked assignee shows 0 filings in the latest year, several down -100% YoY — recent-year counts are undercounted by publication lag, but the pattern says incumbents have slowed fresh filing in favour of licensing or litigation on existing grants.
Filing growth compares 2021 (31 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 504 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 504 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine ultrasound imaging or transducer-array language with CMUT, PMUT, matrix-array or transducer-design claim terms, filtered to the core diagnostic and mechanical-vibration IPC classes. It captures the hardware side of medical ultrasound — transducer construction, array architecture, and the imaging systems built around them — rather than pure image-processing algorithms, which appear only at the margins (G06T: 43 families).
Filing activity concentrated early in the window and has since leveled off, with the United States as the dominant receiving office ahead of the EPO and WIPO's PCT route. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years in any trend chart will always look thinner than the underlying filing activity actually was.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 504-family dataset: the year-by-year filing curve, and how those families split across the IPC subclasses that define the technology.
A peak-then-plateau curve
Filings opened the tracked window at 61 in 2017, peaked at 65 in 2018, and had fallen to 47 by the 2022 midpoint — a flat-to-declining trajectory rather than a growth curve, consistent with a claim space that filled early and has since seen fewer new entrants.
Diagnosis and mechanics lead, software trails
A61B (diagnosis and surgery) covers 449 of 504 families and B06B (mechanical vibration generation) covers 179, with G01S (positioning/sonar) at 157 close behind. A61N (electrotherapy), G10K (acoustics), G01N (material testing), G06T (image processing) and H10N (solid-state devices) each sit well below 55 families, marking them as secondary or adjacent claim territory rather than core contested ground.
Shares are the percentage of the 504 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Medical Ultrasound Imaging Transducer Technology with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about medical ultrasound imaging transducer technology and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this space
WO2023132829A1 — Full-array digital 3D ultrasound imaging system integrated with a matrix array transducer
Methods and systems for ultrasound imaging and beamforming with a matrix array of transducer elements are provided. Receive signals from each transducer array element are amplified, digitized, and then delayed and weighted before being summed across all elements to form a dynamically focused receive beam. An application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) integrated with the matrix array performs these steps.Filed by EXO IMAGING, INC., published 2023-07-13.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6716184B2 | Ultrasound therapy head configured to couple to an ultrasound imaging probe to facilitate contemporaneous ima… | 475 |
| 2 | US6645145B1 | Diagnostic medical ultrasound systems and transducers utilizing micro-mechanical components | 287 |
| 3 | US5479927A | Methods and apparatus for performing sonomammography and enhanced x-ray imaging | 242 |
| 4 | US5474072A | Methods and apparatus for performing sonomammography | 238 |
| 5 | US20160374710A1 | Carotid body ablation with a transvenous ultrasound imaging and ablation catheter | 224 |
| 6 | US6974417B2 | Ultrasound transducer array | 222 |
| 7 | US7736317B2 | Method and apparatus for delivering therapy in and association with an intravascular ultrasound device | 211 |
| 8 | US6457365B1 | Method and apparatus for ultrasonic imaging | 203 |
| 9 | US5664573A | Method and apparatus for performing sonomammography and enhanced X-ray imaging | 200 |
| 10 | US20120123268A1 | Ultrasound probe and ultrasound imaging device | 187 |
Citation counts accumulate over time inside this searched corpus, so older grants naturally lead — read them as markers of foundational influence, not of what matters today.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are read against each other.
The growth phase is behind this field
A field that peaked in 2018 and had already softened by the 2022 midpoint is not accelerating. New entrants filing broad transducer-array claims now are filing into dense, already-occupied space rather than a rising market.
Diagnostic integration is the crowded core
Nearly 90% of families sit inside A61B, meaning claims tying transducer hardware to a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure face the thickest prior art. Pure mechanical or acoustic claims (B06B, G10K) have somewhat more room.
No one is filing fresh right now — read with caution
Every major assignee shows zero filings in the most recent year, some down -100% YoY. Publication lag means this likely understates real filing activity rather than signalling that incumbents have exited the field.
Co-assignment is sparse and inventor-anchored
The strongest co-assignee pairing links one corporate assignee to a small number of named inventors across several filings, rather than pointing to broad joint-venture activity. Cross-company co-filing is rare in this corpus.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to medical ultrasound imaging transducer technology, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it's still open
Ranking tables render separately; what matters here is the pattern behind them — a small set of large medical-imaging incumbents holding the bulk of families, against a backdrop of essentially flat recent filing across the board.
Established imaging OEMs, not filing fast
The named assignees in this space are established diagnostic-imaging manufacturers rather than recent start-ups, and none show positive latest-year momentum in this cut of the data. That is consistent with a portfolio-maintenance posture rather than active land-grabbing.
US-first filing strategy dominates
Nearly half of all records route first through the United States, with Europe and the PCT system a distant second and third. India, Canada and Austria account for smaller but non-trivial shares, worth checking for regional freedom-to-operate.
Collaboration is thin and inventor-linked
Co-assignment activity is limited to a handful of pairings anchored around individual named inventors attached to one large assignee, rather than cross-company alliances. Anyone scouting for joint-development partners will find little precedent here.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Royal Philips) | 0 | — |
| Exo Imaging, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Philips Image Guided Therapy Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Maui Imaging, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| FUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc. | 0 | — |
| GE Precision Healthcare LLC | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | -100% |
| B-K Medical ApS | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The landscape points to a mature core and a thinner set of adjacent branches — the next step depends on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate or a fresh filing.
Check freedom-to-operate against the A61B core
Any transducer claim tied to a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure sits inside the most crowded IPC subclass in this dataset. Run a focused clearance search against that block before drafting.
Explore in EurekaScout the lighter-density branches
H10N solid-state substrates and G10K acoustic-only housings carry a fraction of the families that A61B and B06B do. A first claim there faces less prior art to design around.
Explore in EurekaTrack assignee filing behaviour directly
Zero latest-year filings across every tracked assignee could mean slowdown or could mean publication lag. Watching filing dates rather than publication dates gives a truer read.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions about ultrasound transducer patents
The dataset's ranking is dominated by established diagnostic-imaging manufacturers rather than newer entrants, reflecting decades of accumulated filing in transducer construction and imaging-system integration. None of the tracked leaders show positive filing momentum in the most recent year, which is more likely a sign of publication lag than of exit from the field. Anyone assessing competitive position should look at both the cumulative family count and the recent-year trend, since they tell different stories.
No — filings peaked at 65 families in 2018 and had already fallen to 47 by the 2022 midpoint, a flat-to-declining pattern rather than growth. This does not mean innovation has stopped; it means the core claim space around transducer arrays and diagnostic integration is largely occupied. New filers are more likely to succeed by targeting narrower, less-claimed sub-areas than by re-filing broad array or imaging-system claims.
Both terms appear in this dataset's search criteria alongside matrix-array and general transducer-design language, and both sit within the broader B06B (mechanical vibration) and A61B (diagnosis) claim territory. CMUT (capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer) and PMUT (piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer) claims typically differ in the underlying actuation mechanism, which affects where in the IPC structure — and against which prior art — a given filing is examined. A prior-art search should be run separately for each mechanism rather than treating them as one category.
The IPC composition shows A61B and B06B carrying the bulk of families (449 and 179 respectively), while G10K acoustics, G01N material testing, G06T image processing and H10N solid-state devices each sit well under 55 families. That gap suggests lighter claim density around acoustic-only transducer housings, solid-state substrate integration, and ASIC-level beamforming architectures — areas adjacent to the core but not yet as densely claimed.
Patent publication typically lags the actual filing date by around 18 months, so any trend chart's most recent one to two years will always undercount real filing activity. In this dataset, every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, which is consistent with that lag rather than a sudden stop in R&D. The safer signal is the multi-year trend running up to two years before the data cut-off, not the final year itself.
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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.