Nanomechanical Property Mapping Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Nanomechanical and Electrical Property Mapping Patents: Who Leads and Where the Gaps Sit
One filer accounts for the majority. The leading assignee alone holds 269 of 510 records, and the top 5 combined reach 76.3% of all records in scope. Filings rose from 17 in 2017 to a peak of 139 in 2022. The 2021-to-2024 span shows a 14% increase, from 35 to 40 records; 2025 and 2026 figures are undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
- 110X GENOMICS INC269
- 2THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIV65
- 3BRIDGER TECHNOLOGIES INC28
- 4UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO15
- 5NORTHWESTERN UNIV12
See the full nanomechanical and electrical property mapping 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 this landscape
Who holds the most patents in nanomechanical and electrical property mapping?
One assignee holds 269 of the 510 records in scope, well ahead of any other filer. The top 5 assignees combined hold 76.3% of all records, and the top 10 reach 83.7%, so the field is concentrated rather than fragmented. That said, 79 companies appear in the ranked assignee list, so a long tail of smaller filers still exists behind the leaders.
Is patent filing in this field still growing?
Filing volume rose from 35 records in 2021 to 40 in 2024, a 14% increase, after peaking at 139 records in 2022. The apparent decline shown in 2025 and 2026 is an artefact of publication lag, since publication typically trails filing by around 18 months, not a real drop in activity. Treat any year within roughly the last 18 months as incomplete rather than as evidence of a slowdown.
What does conductive AFM patent coverage actually protect?
A representative filing, US20050127926A1 from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., claims a method of scanning a semiconductor contact with a conductive AFM probe, applying a DC voltage between substrate and tip, and measuring the resulting leakage current. That claim structure covers the specific measurement workflow rather than the conductive-AFM instrument itself, so alternative measurement sequences or different voltage-application methods can sit outside it. Anyone building leakage-current test methods on semiconductor contacts should check this filing’s claim scope directly rather than assume the whole technique is blocked.
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 Nanomechanical and Electrical Property Mapping 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.