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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/mems-and-nems-capacitive-mems-microphones-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Updated 2026Capacitive 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.
- H04R audio-transducer claims cover 56.9% of records while G01L pressure-measurement crossover sits at just 3.8%, marking a comparatively open branch.
- Filing fell 43% from 2021 to 2024 (119 to 68 families), the last span the data treats as complete given an 18-month publication lag.
2,801
Published Records
48%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-43%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (119 records) with 2024 (68) — 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 2,801 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What the capacitive MEMS microphone patent record shows
Capacitive MEMS microphones sit at the intersection of acoustic transduction and microfabrication, and the patent record reflects that dual identity directly. Claims cluster heavily in H04R (loudspeakers and audio transducers) and B81B/B81C (MEMS structures and their manufacture), with a meaningful overlap into semiconductor packaging classes such as H01L and H10D. That overlap is the practical signal: a diaphragm-and-cavity design is rarely claimed in isolation from the wafer process that produces it.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 at 266 records and has since declined through the most recent complete year, 2024. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in the underlying dataset are still filling in and should not be read as a continuation of that decline.
Filing activity by year, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,801-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across the IPC subclasses that define the technology.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
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.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H04R (loudspeakers and audio transducers) appears in 56.9% of the 2,801 records, followed by B81B (MEMS structures, 38.4%) and B81C (MEMS manufacturing, 23.5%). Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should each be read against the full record count, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,801 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. 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.
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Representative and most-cited filings
Representative filing
Capacitive MEMS microphone and electronic apparatus (US20190058956A1)
WEIFANG GOERTEK MICROELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
The present invention discloses a capacitive MEMS microphone and an electronic apparatus. The capacitive MEMS microphone comprises a diaphragm and a substrate, wherein a cavity is formed between the diaphragm and the substrate, and the cavity is filled with an elastic body. An elastic body replaces the air gap of the prior art so that the SNR of the microphone is increased.Filed by Weifang Goertek Microelectronics, this filing illustrates a common design lever in the field: modifying the cavity fill between diaphragm and substrate to improve signal-to-noise ratio rather than altering the electrode geometry itself.
Most-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080013747A1 | Digital stethoscope and monitoring instrument | 314 |
| 2 | US20140270271A1 | MEMS Acoustic Transducer, MEMS Microphone, MEMS Microspeaker, Array of Speakers and Method for Manufacturing … | 303 |
| 3 | US20100052082A1 | Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) package and method for forming the MEMS package | 280 |
| 4 | US20070023851A1 | MEMS pixel sensor | 222 |
| 5 | US7781249B2 | MEMS process and device | 177 |
| 6 | US20070190680A1 | MEMS device and manufacturing process thereof | 169 |
| 7 | US20070284682A1 | Mems process and device | 162 |
| 8 | US20160128389A1 | MEMS-based sensor for an aerosol delivery device | 159 |
| 9 | US20130161702A1 | Integrated MEMS device | 152 |
| 10 | US20120043627A1 | MEMS Sensor Device With Multi-Stimulus Sensing and Method of Fabricating Same | 150 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older filings are structurally favoured. Treat these as markers of documented influence within this corpus, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns from the dataset that matter more to a filing or freedom-to-operate decision than the raw counts alone.
Concentration
48.1% in 5 assignees
of 2,801 records
Claim space at the top is dense
Nearly half of all records in scope belong to just five assignees, and the top ten combined account for 63.8% of the field. Any new entrant filing diaphragm, cavity or packaging claims close to the mainstream design is filing into territory that a handful of companies already occupy heavily.
Diligence priority: check the leading assignees' claim scope before drafting.
Composition
56.9% H04R vs 3.8% G01L
share of records
Audio-transducer claims dominate; pressure-sensing crossover is thin
H04R appears in well over half of all records, consistent with the field's core identity as an audio component. G01L, force and pressure measurement, appears in under 4% of records, suggesting that combined acoustic-pressure sensing designs are comparatively under-claimed relative to the core transducer art.
A record can carry multiple classes, so these are independent shares, not parts of one hundred.
Momentum
-43% (2021→2024)
families, complete years only
Volume is down from its 2017 peak, but the picture is not yet final
Filing dropped from 119 families in 2021 to 68 in 2024, the most recent year the data can treat as complete. Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, years closer to the 2026 cut-off will continue to fill in and should not be read as confirming a further slowdown.
Re-check this trend once 2025-2026 filings have had time to publish.
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Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to mems & nems — capacitive mems microphones patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gate stands
The ranked leaders in this dataset cover 100 companies across 2,801 records. Filing concentration at the top means a newcomer's practical question is less 'who leads' than 'where the leaders have not yet filed.'
Leader
392 records
single top assignee
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee's count is more than double the fifth-place assignee's 154 records, a gap wide enough to suggest a deliberate, sustained filing programme rather than opportunistic activity.
Watch this assignee's recent filings closely for direction shifts.
Mid-field
154 vs 48 records
5th vs 10th place
The drop-off from fifth to tenth is steep
Fifth place holds 154 records; tenth place holds 48. That steep fall-off, rather than a gentle taper, is what produces the 48.1%-to-63.8% jump between the top-5 and top-10 combined shares.
The tail beyond tenth place is long and thin.
Momentum
0 in latest year
for several ranked leaders
Several established filers show no output in the most recent year
A number of assignees that rank highly overall, including some with double-digit YoY declines, show zero filings in the latest year captured. Given the 18-month publication lag, this reads as incomplete data catching up rather than a confirmed exit from the field.
Recheck momentum figures after the next data refresh.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | 1 | -75% |
| Infineon Technologies AG | 0 | -100% |
| Knowles Electronics LLC | 0 | — |
| Cirrus Logic International Semiconductor Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Wolfson Microelectronics | 0 | — |
| InvenSense Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Analog Devices, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Robert Bosch GmbH | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a field with dense claim coverage at the top and a few specific branches left comparatively open.
Map freedom to operate against the leading five assignees
Since these five hold 48.1% of all 2,801 records, a design-around review should start with their claim scope before any new filing in core diaphragm or cavity geometry.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaScope a filing in the under-claimed branches
Combined acoustic-pressure sensing and elastic-body cavity fills show comparatively thin coverage relative to the core H04R art, which may leave room for a defensible first claim.
Run a white-space search in EurekaRe-run the trend once 2025-2026 filings settle
The apparent decline through 2024 is real but the most recent two years are still incomplete because of publication lag; treat any 2025-2026 read with that caveat.
Track filing trends in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about capacitive MEMS microphone patents
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.
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.
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.
The technology composition data shows G01L, force and pressure measurement, appearing in only 3.8% of records, well below the dominant audio-transducer classes. This suggests combined acoustic-pressure sensing designs, and related integration with newer solid-state device classes like H10N, are comparatively under-claimed relative to the core transducer art. That said, thin coverage in the data is a starting signal for a novelty search, not proof of an open claim.
This filing from Weifang Goertek Microelectronics covers a capacitive MEMS microphone where the cavity between diaphragm and substrate is filled with an elastic body rather than left as an air gap, aimed at improving signal-to-noise ratio. It is a specific mechanism claim tied to that cavity-fill approach, not a claim over capacitive MEMS microphones generally. Designs using air-gap cavities, alternative damping structures, or electrode-side modifications instead of cavity fill would sit outside its core claim scope, though a full legal freedom-to-operate check should confirm current claim status and any continuations.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.