Optical Frequency Comb Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Optical frequency comb reliability and durability patents: a fragmented field with no dominant filer
Filing has already peaked and cooled. Activity crested at four families in 2021 and has not returned to that level since, with the midpoint year showing zero filings — a flat-to-declining curve rather than a growth story. Filings were absent in 2017, rose to a peak of four families in 2021, then fell back to zero at the 2022 midpoint. That shape is consistent with a small number of research groups filing around specific breakthroughs (e.g. microresonator combs) rather than an industry building a sustained pipeline.
- 1IMRA AMERICA INC19
- 2RAYTHEON CO3
- 3UNIV GENT2
- 4INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO ELECTRONICS CENT (IMEC VZW)2
- 5UNIV OF MARYLAND1
See the full optical frequency comb reliability and durability 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 on this landscape
Why is the optical frequency comb reliability patent count so much smaller than general frequency comb patents?
This landscape is deliberately narrow: it only includes filings that combine frequency-comb or microcomb terminology with explicit reliability language such as long-term stability, environmental robustness, self-referencing stability, or comb reliability, restricted to laser and optical-modulation IPC classes. The broader field of frequency comb generation, without a stability or durability claim, is much larger and sits outside this 30-family set. Treat this dataset as the reliability-specific slice of a bigger technology area, not as the whole field.
Has patent filing for optical frequency comb reliability slowed down?
The trend data shows a peak of four families in 2021 followed by zero filings at the 2022 midpoint, which reads as a cooling rather than sustained growth. However, publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any dataset will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be. The honest read is that the field has passed an early filing burst and has not yet shown a second wave, but the latest years are not yet fully resolved.
Which companies or institutions lead in optical frequency comb reliability patents?
No single assignee dominates this corpus. Recent-year momentum figures show zero latest-year filings across every named assignee tracked, including university labs, a defense contractor, and government-linked research bodies, and co-assignee pairings are limited to just six pairs across the full 30-family set. This points to a field driven by scattered, largely independent research efforts rather than one shaped by a consolidated commercial leader.
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 Optical Frequency Comb Reliability and Durability 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.