MEMS Accelerometer Functional Safety Patent Snapshot
The MEMS accelerometer functional safety patent space is extremely narrow, with a single filer, InvenSense, holding all 8 patent families in scope and activity concentrated in a brief 2020–2022 window. The field has eased from that peak, leaving both the competitive and technical landscapes largely open for new entrants.
InvenSense holds every ranked position in a highly concentrated niche
InvenSense is the sole ranked applicant, accounting for all 8 patent families in scope. No other organization appears in the top-100 applicant list, making this one of the most concentrated patent niches observable.
With a top-five share of 100% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, there is no measurable tier gap — the entire known corpus sits with one entity. Any new entrant would immediately become the second-largest filer.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | InvenSense Inc. | 8 |
InvenSense’s position implies it has defined the baseline intellectual property in MEMS accelerometer self-test and functional-safety diagnostics, but the small absolute volume and post-2022 silence suggest the space remains technically immature rather than strategically locked.
Filings from 2024 onward are subject to publication lag and should be treated as under-counted; the apparent zero activity in those years may not reflect actual filing behavior. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A short 2020–2022 burst defines the filing history; velocity and MEMS structure dominate the technology mix
The annual filing trend shows a narrow, concentrated period of activity followed by silence, while the technology composition chart reveals that signal-measurement and microstructural patents account for the entire corpus.
Annual filing trend
All filing activity occurred between 2020 and 2022, peaking in 2021. The zero counts before 2020 and from 2023 onward indicate this is an emergent niche that has not yet attracted sustained industry engagement. Filings in 2024–2026 remain subject to publication lag.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
G01P (velocity and acceleration measurement) is visible in the IPC mix, reflecting the sensor-signal and self-test core of functional-safety claims. B81B (microstructural MEMS devices) and B81C (MEMS manufacturing) appear as secondary branches, indicating that structural design and fabrication aspects have also been addressed but to a lesser degree.
↗ 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.
Real-time isolation of self-test and linear accele…
A MEMS accelerometer includes proof masses that move in-phase in response to a sensed linear acceleration. Self-test drive circuitry imparts an out-of-phase movement onto the proof masses. The motion of the proof masses in response to the linear acceleration and the self-test movement is sensed as a sense signal on common sense electrodes. Processing… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Real-time isolation of self-test and linear accele… | 8 |
| 2 | Real-time isolation of self-test and linear accele… | 5 |
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.
InvenSense
InvenSense holds all 8 patent families in scope, with technology emphasis concentrated in G01P 21 (testing/calibrating velocity and acceleration instruments, 8 families), G01P 15 (accelerometers, 7 families), and B81B 7 (microstructural MEMS devices, 3 families). The most-cited work addresses real-time isolation of self-test signals from linear acceleration — the technical core of functional-safety diagnostics for MEMS accelerometers. Recent momentum is flagged as a new entrant pattern in the evidence, consistent with the burst of filings in 2020–2022.
patent families: 8No challenger identified
No second-ranked applicant appears in the evidence. Any organization filing even a single patent family in this space would immediately become the sole challenger. The absence of a challenger tier is itself a strategic signal: the field’s IP boundary is currently defined by one entity’s claim set.
patent families: 0Frequently asked questions
The current evidence scope contains 8 patent families, all held by InvenSense. This is a very small corpus, indicating the intersection of MEMS accelerometry and formal functional-safety claims is an early-stage niche.
InvenSense is the sole ranked filer, holding all 8 patent families in scope. No other organization appears in the applicant ranking, making this one of the most concentrated patent niches in the MEMS sector.
All filing activity occurred between 2020 and 2022, with a peak in 2021. The field has eased from that peak, placing it in a Decline lifecycle stage. Filings from 2024 onward are subject to publication lag and should be treated as under-counted.
G01P (velocity and acceleration measurement) is the visible class, covering all 8 patent records. B81B (microstructural MEMS devices) and B81C (MEMS manufacturing) each appear in 3 patent records as secondary branches.
The United States leads with 4 patent records, followed by Europe via the EPO with 2 records, Austria with 1, and WIPO (PCT) with 1. Coverage outside North America and Europe is minimal.
The most-cited work in the evidence addresses real-time isolation of self-test signals from linear acceleration measurements — the technical foundation for MEMS accelerometer functional-safety diagnostics. The top two cited entries share this title theme, with citation counts of 8 and 5 respectively.
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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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