Nanosheet 2D Channel Materials (GAA) Patent Landscape
Intel and IBM together account for the majority of gate-all-around nanosheet channel IP, establishing a highly concentrated field where two incumbents set the technical agenda. Filing activity peaked in 2019 and has eased on a multi-year basis, signalling a maturing innovation phase rather than an expanding frontier.
Intel and IBM command the field; concentration at the top is extreme
Intel Corporation leads with 220 patent families, followed by IBM at 153 — together they account for the vast majority of output among the largest filers. TSMC ranks third at 52 patent families, already a steep step down from the top two.
The top five filers — Intel, IBM, TSMC, Qualcomm, and Samsung — hold 81% of the combined output of the hundred largest filers, indicating an unusually tight oligopoly. The tier gap between rank 1–2 and rank 3–5 is pronounced, suggesting that only Intel and IBM have built broad, systematic portfolios across multiple nanosheet sub-domains.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Intel Corporation | 220 | |
| 2 | IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | 153 | |
| 3 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | 52 | |
| 4 | Qualcomm Incorporated | 20 | |
| 5 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 16 | |
| 6 | IMEC (Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre) | 11 | |
| 7 | GlobalFoundries US Inc. | 10 | |
| 8 | Adeia Semiconductor Solutions LLC | 10 | |
| 9 | Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 8 | |
| 10 | KOREA ADVANCED INST OF SCI & TECH | 7 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Synopsys Inc. | 5 | |
| 12 | Apple Inc. | 4 | |
| 13 | MediaTek Inc. | 4 | |
| 14 | Tokyo Electron Limited | 4 | |
| 15 | CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) | 4 | |
| 16 | Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 4 | |
| 17 | Rapidus Corporation | 3 | |
| 18 | East China Normal University | 3 | |
| 19 | NXP USA Inc. | 3 | |
| 20 | Center for Integrated Smart Sensors Foundation | 3 |
Intel’s commanding position reflects its early and sustained investment in GAA process technology, consistent with its public roadmap toward Intel 20A and Intel 18A nodes. IBM’s strong second place likely reflects its research-foundry role and long-standing collaborative relationships with GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics.
Patent data for the most recent 18–24 months is subject to publication lag and will under-count actual filing activity; recent-period figures 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.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 and has eased; semiconductor device classes dominate the mix
Two charts capture the field’s tempo and technical scope: an annual filing trend that locates the peak and subsequent moderation, and a technology-class breakdown that shows where patent activity concentrates.
Annual filing trend
Filings surged from 25 in 2017 to a peak of 91 in 2019, then stepped down progressively through 2023. The 2024 and 2025–2026 bars are almost certainly under-counted due to publication lag and should not be read as a continuing decline. The field is past its peak growth phase on a multi-year basis.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01L (Semiconductor devices) and H10D (Semiconductor devices, general) together account for the dominant share of patent records, confirming that nanosheet GAA activity centers on transistor structure and fabrication process claims. B82Y (Nanotechnology applications) appears as a meaningful secondary branch, while H10B (Memory device manufacture) and H10P are sparser, pointing to limited crossover into memory and emerging device applications.
↗ 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.
Stacked nanosheet gate-all-around device with air …
The present disclosure relates to a stacked nanosheet gate-all-around device with an air spacer and a method of manufacturing a stacked nanosheet gate-all-around device with an air spacer. The stacked nanosheet gate-all-around device with the air spacer includes: a substrate with a shallow trench isolation structure on a surface of the substrate; a… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Multi-channel gate-all-around fet | 232 |
| 2 | Metal gate of gate-all-around transistor | 141 |
| 3 | Nanosheet transistor with improved inner spacer | 102 |
| 4 | Nanosheet transistor with uniform effective gate l… | 102 |
| 5 | Transistor structures with reduced parasitic capac… | 89 |
| 6 | Gate spacer and inner spacer formation for nanoshe… | 80 |
| 7 | Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures havi… | 76 |
| 8 | Stacked nanosheet field effect transistor device w… | 73 |
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.
What the structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of a concentrated applicant base, a post-peak filing trajectory, and a US-dominated jurisdiction profile defines both the barriers to entry and the realistic white-space opportunities in this field.
Field is in a post-peak, consolidation phase
Annual filing volume peaked in 2019 at 91 families and has eased significantly since, consistent with a lifecycle stage where core device architectures are well-claimed and incremental refinement — rather than foundational invention — drives remaining activity. New entrants face a dense prior-art landscape in mainstream nanosheet transistor structures. Adjacent branches such as memory integration and nanotechnology applications remain comparatively open.
Post-peak · consolidatingTwo-player oligopoly with a steep drop-off at rank 3
Intel (220 patent families) and IBM (153 patent families) together dwarf TSMC at rank 3 (52 patent families). The top five filers hold 81% of the combined output of the hundred largest filers. This concentration means that licensing or design-around strategies must primarily navigate Intel and IBM portfolios. Ranks 6–20 are fragmented, with no single challenger approaching TSMC’s volume, suggesting limited near-term disruption from the second tier.
High concentrationIBM anchors the most active co-filing network
IBM is the central node in the observed collaboration graph, co-filing with GlobalFoundries (4 joint families), the French CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, 4 families), and STMicroelectronics (4 families). GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics also co-file with each other (4 families). Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) collaborates with the Center for Integrated Smart Sensors Foundation (3 families). Intel, despite its portfolio dominance, does not appear as a collaboration hub in this data, suggesting a predominantly proprietary filing strategy.
IBM-centric networkUS jurisdiction is overwhelmingly dominant; Asia under-represented
The United States accounts for 447 patent records — the vast majority of the corpus — with Europe (EPO) a distant second at 63. China holds only 17 records, South Korea 5, and Taiwan 1, despite these regions hosting major logic foundries. This skew reflects both the US nationality of the leading filers and a strategy of concentrating protection in the largest IP litigation venue. R&D teams outside the US have meaningful freedom-to-operate in non-US jurisdictions but must carefully map US exposure.
US-centric protectionGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | GlobalFoundries Inc. | 4 |
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) | 4 |
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | STMicroelectronics Inc. | 4 |
| GlobalFoundries Inc. | STMicroelectronics Inc. | 4 |
| Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) | Center for Integrated Smart Sensors Foundation | 3 |
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | IBM United Kingdom Ltd. | 2 |
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | IBM Deutschland GmbH | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Intel accelerating; IBM pulling back; new entrants emerging from Samsung, IMEC, and Chinese academia
The top two filers diverge sharply in momentum: Intel is increasing recent-period activity while IBM has contracted significantly. Meanwhile, Samsung, IMEC, and the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have entered as new filers in the recent window.
Intel Corporation
Intel holds 220 patent families — the largest portfolio by a substantial margin — concentrated across H01L 29, H01L 21, and H01L 27 semiconductor device sub-classes, indicating broad coverage of nanosheet transistor structures, fabrication processes, and integrated circuit layouts. Recent-period momentum is positive at +13% versus the prior three-year window, making Intel the only top-tier filer growing its output in the current phase. This trajectory is consistent with Intel’s public commitment to GAA-based process nodes.
families: 220IBM (International Business Machines Corporation)
IBM’s 153 patent families place it firmly in second, with technical focus also spanning H01L 29, H01L 21, and H10D 62 — suggesting a similar breadth to Intel but with greater engagement in generalised semiconductor device classification. However, recent-period filings have declined sharply (−52% versus the prior three-year window), and IBM’s portfolio role appears increasingly oriented toward collaborative research (with GlobalFoundries, STMicroelectronics, and CEA) rather than solo invention at scale.
families: 153| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Corporation | 101 | ▲ +13% |
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | 31 | ▼ -52% |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | 8 | ▼ -74% |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 1 | ▼ -94% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 11 | ▲ new entrant |
| IMEC (Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre) | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 7 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant transistor core
The technology composition reveals several IPC branches where patent density is low relative to the dominant H01L core, representing areas that are technically adjacent to nanosheet GAA but have attracted limited dedicated filing. These are observations of relative sparsity; their value as entry points depends on technical fit and competitive intent.
H10B · Nanosheet channel integration into memory devices
H10B (Memory device manufacture) holds 34 patent records — about 4% of the IPC record distribution — despite nanosheet GAA structures being a plausible enabler of embedded SRAM and DRAM scaling at advanced nodes. The sparse filing density suggests that memory-specific nanosheet channel integration remains an under-claimed area. Teams with process know-how in both GAA fabrication and memory array design could find differentiated positions here, particularly for embedded cache applications in logic SoCs.
Search this in Eureka →H10P · Power and compound semiconductor device applications
H10P carries 23 patent records — roughly 2% of the IPC record distribution — pointing to very limited exploration of nanosheet 2D channel architectures in power semiconductor or compound semiconductor contexts. Given the material advantages of certain 2D channel materials (e.g., wide-bandgap or III-V candidates) for high-electron-mobility and power-switching applications, this branch represents a technically plausible but largely uncharted adjacency. Entry would require bridging GAA device expertise with power device design knowledge.
Search this in Eureka →How leading filers differ across nanosheet GAA technology sub-routes
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | H01L 29 · Semiconductor devices | H01L 21 · Semiconductor devices | H01L 27 · Semiconductor devices | H10D 62 · Semiconductor devices (general) | H10D 64 · Semiconductor devices (general) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Corporation | Strong · 213 | Strong · 142 | Strong · 132 | Strong · 116 | Strong · 112 |
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | Strong · 170 | Strong · 118 | Moderate · 80 | Strong · 89 | Moderate · 69 |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | Strong · 47 | Strong · 34 | Strong · 25 | Strong · 24 | Strong · 24 |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | Strong · 20 | Moderate · 9 | Moderate · 10 | Moderate · 7 | Moderate · 7 |
| GlobalFoundries Inc. | Strong · 13 | Strong · 10 | Moderate · 6 | Strong · 12 | Moderate · 6 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Strong · 15 | Moderate · 6 | Strong · 12 | Moderate · 5 | Moderate · 5 |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 504 patent families in scope for nanosheet 2D channel materials and gate-all-around transistor technology.
Intel Corporation leads with 220 patent families, nearly 44% more than the second-ranked filer, IBM, which holds 153 patent families.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 and has eased on a multi-year basis. The most recent 18–24 months of data are subject to publication lag and should be treated as provisional rather than indicative of the true current pace.
The United States is the dominant jurisdiction, accounting for 447 patent records. Europe (EPO) is a distant second at 63, with China at 17 and South Korea at 5.
IBM is the most active collaboration hub, co-filing with GlobalFoundries (4 joint families), the French CEA (4 families), and STMicroelectronics (4 families). GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics also co-file with each other (4 families). KAIST collaborates with the Center for Integrated Smart Sensors Foundation (3 families).
H10B (Memory device manufacture) at 34 patent records and H10P at 23 patent records are the sparsest IPC branches adjacent to the dominant H01L core, suggesting limited dedicated filing in memory integration and power/compound semiconductor applications of nanosheet channel structures.
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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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