Capacitive MEMS Microphone Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Capacitive MEMS microphone patents: who leads, and where filing is still open
48.1% of all 2,801 records sit with just five assignees — this field is concentrated at the top, not evenly spread across a long tail. 2017 is the peak year at 266 records. The 2021-to-2024 span, the most recent stretch the data treats as complete, shows a 43% decline from 119 to 68 records — a real drop, but one measured before the reporting lag catches up on later years.
- 1INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG14.0%
- 2CIRRUS LOGIC INT SEMICON LTD10.6%
- 3KNOWLES ELECTRONICS LLC10.4%
- 4INVENSENSE INC7.6%
- 5TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO LTD5.5%
See the full mems & nems — capacitive mems microphones patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about capacitive MEMS microphone patents
Who holds the most patents on capacitive MEMS microphones?
The dataset’s assignee ranking is led by a single company with 392 records, well ahead of the fifth-place assignee at 154. The top five assignees combined account for 48.1% of all 2,801 records in scope, and the top ten account for 63.8%. This concentration means that a freedom-to-operate review in this space should prioritise checking the leading assignees’ granted claims before assuming open ground.
Is the capacitive MEMS microphone patent field still growing?
Filing peaked in 2017 at 266 records and has declined since, with the most recent complete comparison showing a 43% drop from 119 records in 2021 to 68 in 2024. However, publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are understated and should not yet be read as confirming a continued slowdown. A fair read is that filing has cooled from its 2017 peak, with the final trajectory still to be confirmed.
What technology areas do capacitive MEMS microphone patents cover?
Most records fall under H04R (loudspeakers and audio transducers, 56.9% of the 2,801 records) and the MEMS structural classes B81B and B81C (38.4% and 23.5% respectively). Semiconductor device classes H01L and H10D also appear substantially, reflecting how closely microphone die design is tied to packaging and fabrication claims. Because a record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than summing to one hundred.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on MEMS & NEMS — Capacitive MEMS Microphones Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.