Micro-LPBF Fine Features Patent Snapshot 2026
The Micro-LPBF fine features patent space is a nascent, highly concentrated niche with only 8 patent families in scope, dominated by a French academic-industrial consortium whose co-filing activity accounts for the bulk of recorded activity. Annual volume has eased from its 2021 peak, and the field is currently characterized by a small number of closely clustered players rather than broad competitive pressure.
A tightly concentrated field led by a French academic-industry cluster
The top five filers — University of Liège, CNES, CNRS, Thales SA, and Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier — together account for 71% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined patent records, signalling an unusually compact visible assignee structure for an additive manufacturing sub-field.
The tier gap between the leading group and the remainder is pronounced: the top five organizations each hold 2 patent records, while all remaining applicants hold only 1 record each, leaving no meaningful second tier.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Liège | 2 | |
| 2 | Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) | 2 | |
| 3 | French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) | 2 | |
| 4 | Thales SA | 2 | |
| 5 | Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier | 2 | |
| 6 | Nuclear Power Institute of China | 1 | |
| 7 | Guangdong Institute of New Materials, Guangdong Academy of Sciences | 1 | |
| 8 | Jiangsu Leidian Jiacheng Laser Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 9 | Shanghai Yunzhu 3D Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 |
The dominance of French public research institutions and Thales SA suggests that fundamental process and materials IP for micro-LPBF fine features is being anchored in the academic-aerospace axis; commercial equipment and materials entrants have yet to establish a comparable foothold.
Filing activity from approximately 2024 onward is subject to standard publication lag and likely understates true recent activity; conclusions about very recent momentum should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sporadic filing history dominated by powder metallurgy and additive manufacturing classes
The annual filing trend reveals a small, intermittent corpus with a visible 2021 spike and a 2025 uptick, while the technology composition chart shows that all 8 patent families sit within B22F (powder metallurgy) and B33Y (additive manufacturing), with alloy science (C22C) forming a secondary layer.
Annual filing trend
Activity first appeared in 2019, peaked at 2 filings in 2021, dropped to zero in 2022–2023, then recovered to 3 in 2025 and 1 in 2026; the 2024–2026 window should be read as a lower-bound estimate due to publication lag, so the apparent recent uptick may be larger than currently visible.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B22F (powder metallurgy) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) each cover all 8 patent records, confirming that every filing addresses both the process and the broader AM classification simultaneously; C22C (alloys) appears in 4 records, indicating that roughly half the corpus extends into material composition claims.
↗ 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.
Graphite-based steel alloy and method for producin…
The present invention relates to a process for producing a steel alloy part, which includes providing a steel alloy powder mixture containing SiC, forming the part from the powder mixture using an additive manufacturing technique, and subjecting the formed part to a thermal treatment for a duration of 1 to 150 minutes at a temperature ranging from 600°C to… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Method for manufacturing a multi-material part by … | 8 |
| 2 | 一种适用于激光选区熔化的金属3D打印的落粉与刮粉装置 | 5 |
| 3 | 一种适用于SLM金属3D打印机的供粉装置 | 1 |
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.
University of Liège
University of Liège holds 2 patent records concentrated entirely in B22F powder metallurgy sub-classes (B22F 1, B22F 10, B22F 5), indicating a process-focused research agenda. Momentum data mark it as a new entrant, suggesting its position was established recently rather than through sustained multi-year filing — making it a nascent but technically grounded player rather than an entrenched incumbent.
patent records: 2Thales SA
Thales SA holds 2 patent records with a technology focus spanning B22F 1, B22F 10, and B22F 12 — the broadest sub-class coverage among all applicants in this cluster. As the only large commercial entity in the top tier, Thales anchors the industrial application angle of the French consortium’s collaborative programme, particularly relevant for aerospace and defense component fabrication.
patent records: 2Frequently asked questions
The current corpus contains 8 patent families in scope. This is a very small corpus, meaning the field is either highly specialized, early-stage, or the search definition is deliberately narrow around micro-scale laser powder bed fusion fine-feature resolution.
University of Liège, CNES, CNRS, Thales SA, and Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier each hold 2 patent records and share the top rank. Chinese filers — including the Nuclear Power Institute of China, Guangdong Institute of New Materials, and two private companies — each hold 1 patent record.
The lifecycle evidence indicates a Decline stage, with annual filings easing back from the 2021 peak. A negative recent growth figure of 67% is recorded. However, the corpus is so small that this read is sensitive to just one or two filings, and the 2024–2026 window is subject to publication lag.
China leads with 4 patent records, followed by the United States with 2, and Europe (EPO) and WIPO (PCT) with 1 each. The French-led consortium’s relatively limited EPO and PCT coverage is notable given its academic-industrial composition.
All recorded co-filing pairs involve four French entities: Thales SA, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, CNRS, and CNES. Each pair within this group shares 2 joint records, indicating a single tightly coordinated research programme rather than multiple independent collaborations.
B22F (powder metallurgy) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) each cover all 8 patent records; C22C (alloys) covers 4. Observably sparse adjacent branches include B33Y 80 (products made by additive manufacturing) and B22F 9 (powder preparation and characterization), neither of which appears in the current corpus despite their technical relevance to fine-feature micro-LPBF.
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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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