Metalens Simulation Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 25 families and has declined since, with the midpoint year 2022 sitting at 11 — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- G02B carries 82 of 98 records, meaning almost all activity sits inside core optical-element classification rather than spreading into adjacent fields like radar or imaging.
- The most-cited record draws 184 citations, a concentration of influence in a small set of early dielectric-metasurface filings that later applicants have had to design around.
Filing growth compares 2021 (4 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 98 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Metalens simulation and modeling covers the computational methods used to predict how a metasurface — an array of subwavelength nanostructures — bends, focuses, or filters light. That includes FDTD simulation, phase-profile modeling, and broader optical-response prediction workflows that let designers specify pillar geometry, spacing, and material before fabrication. The 98 patent families in this dataset span filings from 2015 through mid-2026, drawing on university, national-lab, and corporate assignees working across dielectric and metallic metasurface architectures.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one or two years in the trend understate real activity — 2026's near-zero count reflects a data cut-off, not a stop in filing. The pattern that does hold across the full window is a 2017 peak followed by a slower, lower plateau, which is the shape of a field where the foundational claim territory got staked early.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 98 families: how filing activity has moved over time, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A 2017 peak, then a decline
Filings ran at 25 in 2017, the high point of the series, and by the midpoint year 2022 had fallen to 11. That trajectory — high early, lower and flatter later — is typical of a subfield where the core simulation methods were claimed early and later work narrows into refinements rather than opening new ground.
G02B dominates; adjacent classes are thin
G02B (optical elements and systems) accounts for 82 of 98 records, dwarfing G02F (optical control and modulation, 12), G01J (radiation and light measurement, 11), and H01Q (antennas, 8). B82Y (nanotechnology), H04N (pictorial communication), G01N (material analysis) and G01S (radar/positioning) each carry single digits — these are the thinner branches worth checking before assuming G02B precedent controls.
Shares are the percentage of the 98 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Metalens Simulation and Modeling with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about metalens simulation and modeling and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited filings
Metalens collimators and condensers (US11874476B1)
A device combining an LED with a metalens positioned to reshape the LED's divergent, Lambertian emission profile into a modified transmission profile. The metalens is built from a two-dimensional array of passive pillars extending from a substrate in a radially symmetric pattern of varying diameters, spaced at a uniform subwavelength interval.Filed by IMAGIA, INC., granted January 2024 — illustrates how simulation-driven pillar-array design is being claimed for practical illumination-optics applications beyond imaging.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160306079A1 | Multi-wavelength optical dielectric metasurfaces | 184 |
| 2 | WO2017176921A1 | Meta-lenses for sub-wavelength resolution imaging | 173 |
| 3 | US20190154877A1 | Meta-lenses for sub-wavelength resolution imaging | 163 |
| 4 | US20170212285A1 | Dispersionless and dispersion-controlled optical dielectric metasurfaces | 122 |
| 5 | WO2016168173A1 | Multi-wavelength optical dielectric metasurfaces | 75 |
| 6 | US20180246262A1 | Low-contrast silicon nitride-based metasurfaces | 59 |
| 7 | US10670782B2 | Dispersionless and dispersion-controlled optical dielectric metasurfaces | 56 |
| 8 | WO2018142339A1 | Multilayer optical element for controlling light | 54 |
| 9 | WO2018118984A1 | Ultra-compact, aberration corrected, visible chiral spectrometer with META-lenses | 54 |
| 10 | US20200284960A1 | Multilayer optical element for controlling light | 45 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and favor older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say about this field
Three read-throughs from the filing trend, classification spread, and citation concentration.
The core methods were claimed early
A peak in 2017 followed by a decline to 11 filings by 2022 suggests the foundational FDTD and phase-modeling approaches were staked out in the field's first few years. Later filers are more likely narrowing existing claims than opening new simulation methods.
Claim density sits almost entirely in G02B
Optical elements and systems (G02B) accounts for the large majority of records. The thinner subclasses — G01S, G01N, H04N — show occasional crossover into radar, material testing, and video applications, but none carries meaningful density on its own.
Influence concentrates in a handful of early dielectric-metasurface filings
The top five most-cited records all date to the field's earlier years and cluster around dielectric metasurface design and sub-wavelength imaging resolution. New entrants building on dielectric pillar architectures are almost certainly citing, and designing around, this small set.
US and PCT filings dominate the venue mix
Nearly half of all records were filed at the US receiving office, with PCT applications a distant second and EPO filings smaller still. Filers seeking freedom-to-operate clearance should treat US prosecution history as the primary reference point, with PCT family members as secondary confirmation.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to metalens simulation and modeling, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it's thin
Recent-year momentum across the leading assignees has flattened to zero across the board, which is consistent with the broader post-2017 decline rather than any single company pulling back.
University-to-university collaboration anchors the field
The strongest co-assignee link in this dataset pairs University of Washington with Princeton University's board of trustees, at six shared filings — a signal of sustained joint metasurface research rather than a one-off collaboration.
Samsung Electronics sits among the named leaders
Samsung Electronics (Korea) appears among the top assignees by family count, alongside university and national-lab groups, but shows no filings in the latest tracked year — consistent with the field-wide slowdown rather than a company-specific retreat.
IMAGIA is pushing metalens design into illumination optics
IMAGIA, INC.'s granted filing on metalens collimators and condensers extends metasurface simulation techniques into LED illumination shaping — an application area distinct from the imaging-resolution focus of the earliest, most-cited filings.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| University of Washington | 0 | — |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | 0 | — |
| California Institute of Technology (Caltech) | 0 | — |
| The Trustees of Princeton University | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Korea) | 0 | — |
| IMAGIA INC | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of Michigan | 0 | -100% |
| King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with an early claim peak and a few thinly-populated adjacent branches. Two directions are worth pursuing before committing engineering or legal resources.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top-cited cluster
The five most-cited records concentrate around dielectric metasurface design filed early in the window. Any new dielectric pillar-array approach should be checked against this cluster before further development.
Explore citation mapping in EurekaScope the thinner IPC branches for filing room
G01S, G01N, and H04N each carry only a handful of records despite clear technical overlap with metalens simulation. These branches warrant a closer look for viable, less-crowded claim positions.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about metalens simulation patents
This landscape covers filings that claim computational methods for predicting or designing metasurface optical behavior — chiefly FDTD (finite-difference time-domain) simulation, metasurface phase-profile modeling, and optical-response simulation used ahead of fabrication. It excludes patents that only claim the physical metalens structure with no modeling method attached, though many filings in this dataset combine both. The search string used to build this dataset specifically requires both a metasurface/metalens term and a simulation-method term in the same record.
2017 marks the high point in this dataset at 25 filings, likely reflecting the period when several foundational dielectric-metasurface groups — the assignees behind the most-cited records in this set — were actively staking out core simulation and design-method claims. Filing activity declined afterward, reaching 11 by the 2022 midpoint, a pattern consistent with a field where the foundational territory was claimed early and subsequent work narrows rather than expands it. Note that the most recent one to two years in any patent trend are understated because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months.
The leading assignees in this dataset are a mix of universities and one major electronics manufacturer: University of Washington, Harvard University's president and fellows, Caltech, Princeton University's board of trustees, and Samsung Electronics (Korea) all appear among the top-ranked assignees by family count. Recent-year filing momentum across all of these has flattened to zero, which tracks with the field-wide decline rather than indicating any one organization has stopped working in the area. IMAGIA, INC. is a notable smaller entrant with a granted 2024 filing extending metalens design into LED illumination optics.
US11874476B1, assigned to IMAGIA, INC. and granted in January 2024, claims a device pairing an LED with a metalens built from a two-dimensional array of passive pillars in a radially symmetric pattern of varying diameters, spaced at a uniform subwavelength interval. The metalens reshapes the LED's divergent, Lambertian emission profile into a different, specified transmission profile. This is narrower than the foundational dielectric-metasurface imaging patents in this dataset — it's specific to illumination shaping rather than sub-wavelength imaging resolution, so it does not block general metasurface simulation methods, only this particular pillar-array-to-LED configuration.
The IPC composition shows density concentrated in G02B (82 of 98 records), with G02F, G01J, and H01Q each carrying a modest share and G01S, G01N, and H04N each in single digits despite clear technical relevance — radar-integrated phase design, material-analysis probes, and video-sensor integration all use metasurface simulation but are thinly claimed in this dataset. These thinner branches are the more promising areas to scope for new filings, since the dense G02B territory is more likely to run into prior art from the field's early, highly-cited filers.
Research Metalens Simulation and Modeling in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole metalens simulation and modeling corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.