Optical Transceiver Coating Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- A small, concentrated field. just 19 patent families sit inside this search, with filing peaking at 4 in 2022 and no clear year-on-year build since.
- Laser physics, not module packaging, dominates the claims. H01S (lasers & stimulated emission) appears in 15 of 19 records, well ahead of H04B transmission and G02B optical elements.
- The most-cited prior art is two decades old. the top-cited record, US6160834A on VCSEL slope efficiency, was cited 66 times — a reminder that citation counts here reward age, not current relevance.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 records) with 2024 (0) — 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 19 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of optical transceivers, optical modules and co-packaged optics with claims naming anti-reflection coatings, facet coatings, dielectric mirrors or optical filter coatings. The IPC scope pulls in classification codes for optical elements (G02B1/11), coated glass and ceramics (C03C17) and semiconductor lasers with feedback structures (H01S5/028) — a narrow, cross-disciplinary slice rather than a broad transceiver category.
Nineteen published records is a small corpus. It is large enough to show where claim density sits and where it does not, but any single new filing can meaningfully shift the picture — treat rankings here as directional, not statistically robust.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 19 families: how filing activity has moved year on year, and which parts of the classification system the claims actually sit in.
A flat-to-declining filing curve
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 4 in 2022, then did not sustain that level. With publication lagging filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent years understate true activity, but the 2022 peak with no clear follow-through still points to a field that has not found sustained momentum.
Laser physics carries the claim weight
H01S (lasers & stimulated emission) appears in 15 of 19 records — the coating claims here are largely anchored to laser facet and cavity structures rather than free-standing filter or module-level optics. G02B (optical elements & systems) and H05K (printed circuit assemblies) each appear in only a handful of records, suggesting the module-packaging and PCB-integration angles are comparatively thin.
Shares are the percentage of the 19 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Optical Transceiver Optical Coating with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about optical transceiver optical coating and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art and a representative recent filing
US20250389927A1 — Optical modules for the ultraviolet wavelength range (Carl Zeiss SMT)
The disclosure describes an optical module built around an optical element bonded to a holder with a UV-curable adhesive. The protective adhesive coating is multi-layered, engineered to be highly reflective and only slightly absorbent across the working UV wavelength range, and a further variant adds an anti-reflective coating over the absorbing layer.Abstract condensed from the published filing; see the full-text record for complete claim language.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6160834A | Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers with consistent slope efficiencies | 66 |
| 2 | US20120327965A1 | Semiconductor laser element, method of manufacturing semiconductor laser element, and optical module | 19 |
| 3 | US20190326731A1 | Optical Apparatus for Optical Transceivers | 12 |
| 4 | WO2000030226A1 | Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers with consistent slope efficiencies | 8 |
| 5 | US10897122B2 | Optical apparatus for optical transceivers | 6 |
| 6 | CN217182628U | 一种激光芯片及光模块 | 3 |
| 7 | CN119156750A | 一种激光芯片制备方法、激光芯片及光模块 | 2 |
| 8 | CN218549071U | 一种电吸收调制激光器和光模块 | 2 |
| 9 | US20230358920A1 | Electronic Devices with Lenses | 1 |
| 10 | WO2023231353A1 | 一种激光芯片制备方法、激光芯片及光模块 | 1 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records; read them as a signal of influence on the field, not as a ranking of current importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three findings that shape where to file, what to watch, and what still looks open in this niche.
The field peaked and has not repeated it
Filing activity climbed from nothing in 2017 to a high of 4 families in 2022, with the midpoint year matching the peak — a sign the curve is flat or declining rather than building toward a wave. For a niche this small, that pattern is consistent with a technology that saw a burst of interest tied to specific product cycles rather than a structural growth trend.
Claims cluster on laser structures, not modules
Nearly all records touch H01S (lasers & stimulated emission), while H04B, G02B, H05K and H01L each appear far less often. Coating innovation here is predominantly being claimed as part of laser facet or cavity design, which leaves module-level and PCB-integration framing comparatively open.
US-centric filing with a modest PCT and China presence
Nine of the tracked records were filed at the United States receiving office, roughly triple the count for China or WIPO's PCT route, with Canada, Australia and the EPO each accounting for one or two. Any freedom-to-operate check should start with US prior art but not stop there.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to optical transceiver optical coating, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
With 19 families spread across a mix of corporate, individual and research-institute assignees, no single entity shows sustained recent-year momentum — every named assignee in the momentum data shows zero filings in the latest tracked year, consistent with the flat 2022-onward trend.
Collaboration is rare and thin
Only four co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, the strongest being a two-record pairing between a communications firm and an individual inventor. Most families in this space are filed by a single assignee acting alone.
No active filer shows current-year output
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum — spanning corporate labs, a research institute and individual inventors — shows zero filings in the latest year. Combined with the flat post-2022 trend, this points to a niche in a quiet phase rather than one being actively built out by a leader.
The influential prior art predates the current wave
The most-cited record in the corpus, on VCSEL slope efficiency, dates to an earlier generation of laser design and carries far more citations than any recent filing. New entrants should expect freedom-to-operate analysis to keep referencing this older baseline.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Xiluo Communications Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Qingdao Hisense Broadband Multimedia Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP | 0 | — |
| SCOTT JEFFREY W | 0 | — |
| Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) | 0 | — |
| Apple Inc. | 0 | — |
| Oclaro Japan, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Optotune Switzerland AG | 0 | — |
Using this landscape
This page maps where claims already sit; the next step is testing a specific concept or filing against that map.
Check a concept against the coating cluster
Run a candidate coating design or claim draft against the laser-facet-heavy claim density documented here before committing R&D time to it.
Explore in Eureka →Watch the quiet assignees
Several named assignees show zero recent-year filings; track whether that changes as new publications clear the 18-month lag.
Set up monitoring in Eureka →Common questions on this landscape
This dataset identifies 19 published patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine optical transceiver, optical module or co-packaged optics terminology with anti-reflection coating, facet coating, dielectric mirror or optical filter coating claims. That is a small, tightly scoped corpus rather than a broad transceiver-industry count. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, recent years are understated and the true recent total is likely somewhat higher.
The corpus includes a mix of corporate, research-institute and individual-inventor assignees, but none shows sustained recent-year filing momentum — every tracked assignee recorded zero filings in the latest year. Co-filing is also rare, with only four identified co-assignee pairs across the 19 families. This points to a fragmented field without a single dominant, currently active filer.
Fifteen of the 19 records classify under H01S, the IPC subclass for lasers and stimulated emission, because much of the anti-reflection and facet coating innovation in this space is claimed as part of the laser device itself rather than as a standalone optical filter or module component. Coatings on laser facets directly affect slope efficiency and reliability, which is why laser manufacturers file coating claims inside laser-structure patents. This skews the corpus toward laser physics and away from module-packaging or PCB-integration framing.
Sub-areas with comparatively thin claim density include module-level dielectric mirror stacks, PCB-integrated filter coating assemblies, co-packaged optics facet protection, and multi-layer UV-curable adhesive coatings — all areas that appear at the edges of the current H01S-heavy cluster rather than at its core. These are worth a closer freedom-to-operate check rather than an assumption of clearance, given the corpus is only 19 families and a single new filing can change the picture. A first claim in these areas would likely need to differentiate from the dominant laser-facet coating approach rather than compete directly with it.
US20250389927A1, assigned to Carl Zeiss SMT, describes an optical module where an optical element is bonded to a holder using a UV-curable adhesive, with a multi-layered protective adhesive coating that is highly reflective and only slightly absorbent at the working UV wavelength, plus a variant adding a separate anti-reflective layer. It is specific to ultraviolet-wavelength optical modules and adhesive-bonded holder assemblies, not general transceiver coatings. Anyone working on UV-range optical modules with adhesive-bonded elements should review its claim scope directly rather than relying on this summary, but it is unlikely to block coating work outside the UV wavelength range or outside adhesive-bonded holder designs.
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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.