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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/pcb-and-electronic-assembly-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Electronics Manufacturing & PackagingPCB and Electronic Assembly Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Heading
- Filing has cooled from its peak. the field peaked in 2021 at 813 records and fell 43% to 464 by 2024, the last complete year before publication lag distorts the count.
- Leadership is concentrated but not locked up. the top 5 assignees hold 23.9% of all 14,669 records and the top 10 hold 28.2% — a real edge, but well short of control.
- Semiconductor and printed-circuit classes dominate the claim space. H01L and H05K each cover roughly three in ten records, while connector and power-supply classes trail well behind.
14.7K
Published Records
24%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-43%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (813 records) with 2024 (464) — 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 14,669 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this dataset covers
This landscape covers 14,669 published records at the intersection of electronic assembly and core PCB reliability concerns: bonding pads, package substrates, thermal interfaces, electrical connections, substrate interconnects and package reliability. The search string ties assembly-level claims to these specific failure and integration points rather than to PCB fabrication in general, so the corpus skews toward how components are joined and kept reliable rather than how boards are etched or laminated.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-08-31 data cut-off. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, records from 2025 and 2026 are still arriving and should be read as provisional rather than as evidence of a slowdown.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on PCB & Electronic Assembly Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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Data & Trends
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 14,669-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran at 603 in 2017 and rose to a peak of 813 in 2021, before falling to 464 by 2024 — a 43% decline over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures (44 in the most recent year shown) understate real activity because of publication lag; they are not evidence the field has stopped moving.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H01L (semiconductor devices) leads at 29.7% of all records, closely followed by H05K (printed circuits and assemblies) at 27.3%. H10W sits at 16.3% and H01R (connectors and current collectors) at 11.5%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should each be read against the full 14,669-record base, not against each other as a pie.
Shares are the percentage of the 14,669 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on PCB & Electronic Assembly Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on PCB & Electronic Assembly Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about pcb & electronic assembly patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative Filing
A representative claim in the corpus
Representative Record
Electronic assembly including cable modules (US20210274673A1, TE Connectivity Solutions, 2021-09-02)
TE CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS GMBH
An electronic assembly includes an electronic package connected to a host circuit board. The electronic assembly includes interposer assemblies electrically connected to the electronic package. The electronic assembly includes cable modules coupled to upper separable interface of the interposer assemblies. The electronic assembly includes carrier assemblies configured to be coupled to an upper surface of the electronic package. Each carrier assembly includes a carrier base block and a carrier lid configured to hold at least one interposer assembly and at least one cable module.Abstract excerpted from the published filing.
Most-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6749587B2 | Modular infusion device and method | 1,812 |
| 2 | US6740059B2 | Devices, systems and methods for patient infusion | 1,414 |
| 3 | US20020040208A1 | Data collection assembly for patient infusion system | 1,413 |
| 4 | US20040105264A1 | Multiple Light-Source Illuminating System | 1,261 |
| 5 | US7137964B2 | Devices, systems and methods for patient infusion | 1,173 |
| 6 | US20120206050A1 | Detector Controlled Illuminating System | 935 |
| 7 | US6609029B1 | Clip lock mechanism for retaining lead | 908 |
| 8 | US20040204673A1 | Modular infusion device and method | 854 |
| 9 | US7029455B2 | Devices, systems and methods for patient infusion | 849 |
| 10 | US6235554B1 | Method for fabricating stackable chip scale semiconductor package | 806 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on PCB & Electronic Assembly Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers say about the field
Three readings of the same dataset: concentration at the top, where the claim density actually sits, and how volume has moved since the peak year.
Concentration
23.9%
of 14,669 records held by top 5 assignees
A real lead, not a lock
The top 5 assignees combine for 23.9% of all records in scope, and the top 10 add up to 28.2%. That is a meaningful filing advantage, but with more than seven in ten records held outside the ranked leaders, no single company has closed off the field.
Based on the full 100-company assignee ranking.
Trend
-43%
2021 peak (813) to 2024 (464)
Volume down from a 2021 peak
Filing volume peaked in 2021 at 813 records and had fallen to 464 by 2024, a 43% decline over three years. 2024 is the last year in this dataset complete enough to trust; years after it are still filling in due to publication lag.
Compare against 2017's 603 records as a pre-peak baseline.
Composition
29.7%
of records classed under H01L
Semiconductor and PCB classes carry the weight
H01L (semiconductor devices) and H05K (printed circuits and assemblies) each cover roughly three in ten records, well ahead of H01R connector claims at 11.5% and H02J power-supply claims at 6.1%. Filing density here signals occupied claim space, not settled technology.
Shares overlap because records can carry multiple IPC classes.
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Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to pcb & electronic assembly patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on PCB & Electronic Assembly Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Assignee Landscape
Who is filing, and where momentum is shifting
The ranked leaders span large semiconductor, connector and industrial-electronics filers, but the field also carries a long tail: most of the 14,669 records sit outside the top 10.
Leader
2,048
records from the top-ranked assignee
One filer well ahead of the pack
The leading assignee holds 2,048 records, far more than fifth place at 221 and tenth place at 102 — a steep drop-off after the top handful that flattens quickly into a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
Ranking covers 100 assignees, counted in records.
Momentum
-57% YoY
latest-year change for the top filer
Recent-year filings are down across the board
Every tracked assignee shows flat or declining recent-year counts, from a 57% year-on-year drop at the leading filer to smaller absolute counts elsewhere falling by 50-100%. Read this alongside the publication-lag caveat rather than as a definitive retreat.
Momentum figures reflect the latest year in the dataset, which is still partial.
Collaboration
10
co-assignee pairs identified
Collaboration is narrow and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest links all run through one filer paired with named individual inventors rather than joint corporate filings — collaboration here looks more like internal inventor teams than cross-company partnership.
Strongest pair recurs across multiple co-filing counts.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Corporation | 6 | -57% |
| NuCurrent Inc. | 2 | -94% |
| International Business Machines Corporation | 1 | -50% |
| Apple Inc. | 1 | -67% |
| NOCO Company | 0 | -100% |
| Delphi Technologies Inc. | 0 | — |
| Amphenol Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Micron Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on PCB & Electronic Assembly Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific questions worth running down before committing filing or freedom-to-operate budget.
Map the white space against the leader's claims
With one assignee holding 2,048 records, check whether under-claimed branches like thermal interface materials or substrate interconnect reliability sit inside or outside that filer's existing claim scope before drafting.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the post-2024 filings as they publish
Because publication lag means 2025 and 2026 records are still arriving, revisit the trend in six to twelve months rather than treating the current dip as final.
Set up trend monitoring in EurekaVerify freedom to operate around the representative filing
The TE Connectivity cable-module assembly claims a specific interposer-and-carrier structure; confirm whether a design under review reads on that structure or falls outside it.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on PCB & Electronic Assembly Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
One assignee holds a clear lead with 2,048 records, well ahead of the field, and the top 5 assignees together account for 23.9% of all 14,669 records in scope. The top 10 combined reach 28.2%, which means more than seven in ten records sit outside the ranked leaders. That long tail includes many single- and few-filing entrants, so a newcomer is not automatically boxed out by the leaders' scope.
Filing volume rose from 603 records in 2017 to a peak of 813 in 2021, then declined 43% to 464 by 2024. 2024 is the most recent year in this dataset reliable enough to draw conclusions from, because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months. Treat the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 as incomplete rather than as proof the field is winding down.
H01L (semiconductor devices) and H05K (printed circuits and assemblies) are the two largest IPC subclasses, covering 29.7% and 27.3% of all records respectively. H10W follows at 16.3% and H01R connector claims at 11.5%. Because a record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than sum to 100%, so no single class should be read as a majority of the field on its own.
Composition data shows heavy claim density in core semiconductor and printed-circuit classes but comparatively thinner coverage in adjacent areas such as thermal interface materials for stacked packages, substrate interconnect reliability under thermal cycling, and bonding pad degradation in high-density fan-out structures. High density in the core classes means that claim space is occupied, not that adjacent branches have been fully worked through. Anyone drafting new claims should check these thinner branches against the leading assignees' existing scope before assuming they are open.
Collaboration is limited: the dataset identifies only 10 co-assignee pairs across the entire corpus of 14,669 records. The strongest pairs all involve one filer paired with named individual inventors, which looks more like internal inventor teams being recorded as co-assignees than genuine cross-company joint filing. Most activity in this field is filed by single assignees rather than through formal partnerships.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on PCB & Electronic Assembly Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.