This landscape identifies 37 published patent families filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine optical transceiver, optical module or co-packaged optics claims with silicon photonics or integrated waveguide subject matter under the core G02B6/12-family IPC codes. That is a small, tightly-defined dataset rather than a broad category count, since it is filtered to a specific technical intersection. Broader searches on optical transceivers alone, or on waveguides alone, would return substantially more records.

No — filing peaked at 7 families in 2018 and had fallen back to zero by the 2022 midpoint, with no recovery through the partial 2026 count. That flat-to-declining pattern suggests the core claim space was staked out in the late 2010s and has not attracted a renewed wave of filers since. The most recent one to two years should still be read cautiously, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.

Assignee activity in this dataset is dispersed rather than concentrated behind one or two dominant filers; the strongest linkages are co-filing pairs between a Korean university technology-transfer organisation and individually named inventors. Corporate assignees named in the broader dataset include IBM, Huawei, NTT, Fujitsu and 3M, among others, but none shows filing activity in the most recent tracked year. This points to a field with several historical contributors rather than one company setting the pace today.

US8231284B2 describes a single-chip CMOS optical transceiver combining sixteen 10-Gb/s transmit and receive channels, with flip-chip VCSEL and photodiode arrays and backside-integrated collimating lenses, for a 160-Gb/s bidirectional aggregate rate. It is among the most-cited records in this landscape, filed by International Business Machines Corporation, and its architecture — combined transmit/receive on one CMOS die with integrated optics — recurs as a reference point in later, more narrowly-scoped filings. Anyone drafting claims around single-chip transceiver integration should check this filing's scope specifically.

The IPC composition shows G02F electro-optic modulation and B23P metalworking as only marginally represented alongside the dominant G02B optical-elements classification, which marks them as thin relative to the core waveguide claims. Waveguide-to-PCB optical coupling and multiplex-channel waveguide combining under H04J also show comparatively light coverage. These pockets deserve a freedom-to-operate check rather than an assumption of openness, since thin coverage in this specific search string can also mean the relevant claims are classified elsewhere.