Capacitive MEMS Accelerometer Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 30.9% of all 2,693 records sit with just five assignees, so the field reads as concentrated at the top rather than fragmented.
- Filings fell 43% from 2021 to 2024 (106 to 60), the last span the dataset can treat as complete given an 18-month publication lag.
- G01P and B81B dominate the classes at 39.5% and 32.3% of records respectively, leaving navigation-adjacent and manufacturing classes comparatively lighter.
Filing growth compares 2021 (106 records) with 2024 (60) — 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 2,693 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 2,693 published records matching capacitive and micromachined accelerometer terminology alongside MEMS/NEMS device language, filed between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 cut-off. The scope spans consumer inertial sensing, automotive safety, industrial instrumentation and geophysical survey equipment — anywhere a proof mass and capacitive sense electrode combination shows up in claims or description. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate true filing activity.
The dataset is built from patent families rather than raw document counts where the assignee ranking is concerned, which neutralises continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates. Readers should treat the ranking as the shape of who has staked claims, not as a measure of commercial share.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,693 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Annual filings peaked in 2019 at 141 and have since declined; the -43% move from 106 filings in 2021 to 60 in 2024 is the most recent span the dataset can treat as complete. 2025 and 2026 figures will fill in as publication catches up, so they should not be read as a continued drop yet.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G01P (velocity and acceleration, 39.5% of records) and B81B (MEMS microstructural devices, 32.3%) anchor the field. B81C manufacturing methods sit at 19.9%, H01L semiconductor integration at 15.3%, and G01C navigation/gyroscope crossover at 13.6% — each record can carry several classes, so these shares add to more than 100% of the 2,693 records in scope.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,693 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on MEMS & NEMS — Capacitive MEMS Accelerometers Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about mems & nems — capacitive mems accelerometers patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative recent filing
Mass deflection self-testing of a MEMS accelerometer
A method is provided for self-testing a capacitive MEMS accelerometer comprising a first proof mass and a second proof mass arranged in double differential configuration. A state machine implements the self-testing method, applying a bias voltage pattern of alternating bias and readout periods across deflection and return states, with pass/fail determined per state.Filed by Murata Manufacturing, published 2025-07-31 — illustrates the current focus on built-in self-test rather than new transduction mechanisms.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20150201918A1 | Surgical Handpiece | 1,097 |
| 2 | US20030217915A1 | Fabrication of microstructures with vacuum-sealed cavity | 583 |
| 3 | US5659195A | CMOS integrated microsensor with a precision measurement circuit | 370 |
| 4 | US20140113828A1 | Electrical, mechanical, computing/ and/or other devices formed of extremely low resistance materials | 351 |
| 5 | US20080021336A1 | Devices and methods for accelerometer-based characterization of cardiac synchrony and dyssynchrony | 319 |
| 6 | US6199874B1 | Microelectromechanical accelerometer for automotive applications | 299 |
| 7 | US8232879B2 | Directional sensing mechanism and communications authentication | 290 |
| 8 | US20090326851A1 | Miniaturized Inertial Measurement Unit and Associated Methods | 281 |
| 9 | US5919548A | Chemical-mechanical polishing of recessed microelectromechanical devices | 277 |
| 10 | US6170332B1 | Micromechanical accelerometer for automotive applications | 239 |
Citation counts favour older documents that have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence, not of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the concentration, trend and class data that matter for deciding where to file or challenge.
The top of the field is dense, not the whole field
Five assignees hold 833 of the 2,693 records in scope — 30.9% of the total. The next five bring the combined top-10 share to 42.4% (1,142 records). That leaves well over half the corpus spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, which is where freedom-to-operate work tends to find more room than the headline concentration suggests.
Volume has cooled since the 2019 peak
Annual filings peaked at 141 in 2019 and fell to 60 by 2024, a 43% drop from the 106 filed in 2021. Several of the largest historical filers show recent-year filings at or near zero, which reads more as a shift toward consolidation and licensing than as a shrinking market — the underlying accelerometer demand in automotive and consumer electronics has not gone away.
Sensing mechanics still outweigh integration claims
G01P (velocity and acceleration) and B81B (MEMS microstructural devices) between them touch a majority of records, while H01L semiconductor integration sits at 15.3% and G06F signal-processing crossover at only 4.6%. That gap suggests the mechanical sensing element is still the most heavily claimed layer, with software and system-level processing comparatively open.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to mems & nems — capacitive mems accelerometers patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the collaboration patterns sit
The ranked assignee list spans consumer inertial-sensor makers, automotive tier suppliers, foundries and geophysical survey specialists. Co-assignee pairs are rare in this dataset — only 10 pairs recorded — which points to a field where most work is filed solo rather than jointly developed.
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 220 records against 76 at fifth place and 50 at tenth, a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-plus-tail structure rather than an evenly split field.
Joint filing is the exception, not the norm
The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset appears 23 times, well ahead of the next pairs at single digits. Most records in this landscape carry a single assignee, consistent with in-house MEMS design teams rather than joint ventures.
Filing is US-centred with a strong PCT and EPO tail
The United States receives 1,473 of the filings tracked here, ahead of Europe (EPO) at 434 and WIPO/PCT at 301. Germany (138) and India (38) show meaningful but smaller national-phase activity, suggesting most applicants treat the US as the primary filing jurisdiction and use PCT to defer other markets.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 2 | -60% |
| InvenSense, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Analog Devices, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Atlantic Inertial Systems Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Robert Bosch GmbH | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether you are clearing a design or building a filing strategy.
Map claims against your own design
Run your proof-mass geometry, electrode configuration and self-test scheme against the ranked assignee's active claims before committing to a layout.
Open Eureka to search claimsWatch the momentum shift
Several long-standing filers show near-zero recent-year activity; track whether that reflects licensing consolidation or a genuine pull-back before assuming the space has cleared.
Set up monitoring in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches
Signal-processing integration and self-test architectures carry lighter class density than core sensing claims — worth a freedom-to-operate check before assuming it is open.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The ranked assignee list is led by a single company holding 220 of the 2,693 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 76 and the tenth at 50. The top five combined hold 30.9% of all records, and the top ten hold 42.4%, which means the field is concentrated at the top but still leaves a long tail of smaller filers. Consumer inertial-sensor makers, automotive suppliers, foundries and at least one geophysical survey specialist all appear among the ranked leaders, so the leadership is not confined to one industry segment.
No — filings peaked in 2019 at 141 and fell to 60 by 2024, a 43% drop from the 106 filed in 2021. That 2021-to-2024 span is the most recent one the dataset can treat as complete, because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 counts will keep rising as more records publish. The honest read is a cooling filing rate since the 2019 peak rather than a market in decline, since underlying demand for inertial sensing in automotive and consumer devices has not disappeared.
G01P (velocity and acceleration measurement) and B81B (MEMS microstructural devices) are the two dominant classes, covering 39.5% and 32.3% of the 2,693 records respectively. B81C (MEMS manufacturing methods) follows at 19.9%, and H01L (semiconductor devices) at 15.3% shows how much of the field also touches integration with standard IC processes. Because a single record can carry several classes, these figures add up to more than 100% of records and should not be treated as mutually exclusive shares.
Relative to the dense core sensing and manufacturing classes, signal-processing integration (G06F crossover sits at just 4.6% of records) and self-test/state-machine architectures for capacitive sensing show lighter claim density. Navigation-grade fusion of capacitive accelerometers with gyroscope data (G01C, 13.6%) is another area with room relative to the core mechanical sensing claims. These are relative gaps within a filed field, not empty territory, so any filing there should still start with a freedom-to-operate check against the ranked leaders' active claims.
Moderately concentrated: the top five assignees hold 30.9% of all 2,693 records, and the top ten hold 42.4%, against a ranked list of 100 companies total. That leaves well over half the corpus distributed among assignees ranked below tenth place, many with only a handful of filings each. Co-assignee filings are rare in this dataset — only 10 pairs recorded, with the strongest pair appearing 23 times — so most patenting here is done by single organisations rather than joint ventures.
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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.