PERC Solar Cell Module Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- 24 families total, a small, still-forming corpus rather than a saturated field — most of the claim space remains open.
- Filing peaked in 2018 at six records, then went quiet through the 2022 midpoint before ticking back up — the field is re-accelerating, not winding down.
- United States receives the largest share of filings, with Europe and PCT routes well behind — regional filing strategy is still concentrated, not global.
What this landscape covers
PERC (passivated emitter and rear contact) cell design intersects with module-level manufacturing at a specific seam: cell stringing, interconnection and lamination. This landscape isolates that seam rather than PERC cell chemistry broadly, pulling records that combine PERC or passivated-emitter-rear-contact terminology with module-assembly language across the relevant semiconductor and photovoltaic IPC classes.
The dataset is small — 24 published families across roughly a decade — which makes it a useful map of where claims already sit and where they conspicuously do not, rather than a dense thicket to route around.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 24-family corpus: activity over time, and where those families sit across the IPC classification system. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent year shown is always an undercount of true filing activity.
Filing trend, 2015-2026
Filings rose from nothing in 2017 to a peak of six in 2018, dropped to zero by the 2022 midpoint, and are now rebuilding — a pattern more consistent with a niche filing around a specific manufacturing technique than a mainstream, continuously-filed category.
IPC subclass distribution
Every record sits in H01L (semiconductor devices), and ten also touch H02S (photovoltaic power generation) — confirming the corpus is genuinely at the cell/module boundary. Smaller but consistent counts in C03C (glass and enamel), C09D (coatings) and H01B (conductors) show that encapsulation materials and interconnect conductors are claimed alongside the cell architecture itself, not in isolation.
Shares are the percentage of the 24 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on PERC Solar Cell Module Manufacturing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about perc solar cell module manufacturing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art
EP4602658A1 — bifacial PERC solar cells and their manufacturing method
Filed by Avalon Solar Technologies Pty. Ltd. and published 2025-08-20, this record sits at the current edge of the dataset's filing activity and covers bifacial PERC cell construction and its associated manufacturing steps.Title translated from the German-language original.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110120535A1 | Aluminum pastes and use thereof in the production of passivated emitter and rear contact silicon solar cells | 44 |
| 2 | US20110120551A1 | Process for the formation of a silver back electrode of a passivated emitter and rear contact silicon solar c… | 35 |
| 3 | US20160365469A1 | Solar cell array | 14 |
| 4 | US20190019911A1 | Multi-layer metal film stacks for shingled silicon solar cell arrays | 8 |
| 5 | US20130056060A1 | Process for the production of LFC-PERC silicon solar cells | 7 |
| 6 | US20130061918A1 | Process for the formation of a silver back electrode of a passivated emitter and rear contact silicon solar c… | 7 |
| 7 | WO2018209147A1 | Multi-layer metal film stacks for shingled silicon solar cell arrays | 5 |
| 8 | WO2013036689A1 | Process for the production of LFC-PERC silicon solar cells | 5 |
| 9 | US20170148933A1 | Fired multilayer stacks for use in integrated circuits and solar cells | 4 |
| 10 | WO2020009200A1 | Print-on pastes with metal-based additives for modifying material properties of metal particle layers | 3 |
Citation counts are drawn from a searched corpus and favour older filings; treat them as a measure of influence on later filers, not of current commercial relevance.
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Three patterns stand out once filing volume, geography and citation weight are read together.
Activity is episodic, not sustained
A single peak year (2018, six records) followed by a return to zero at the 2022 midpoint suggests the field has been driven by a handful of filers reacting to specific manufacturing problems, rather than a continuously-invested category. The 2026 uptick is early but real.
Filing strategy is US-anchored
The United States receives roughly twice the filings of Europe and nearly three times the PCT route, with India, Malaysia and Singapore appearing only once or a few times each. A filer targeting only the US and EPO would still miss a meaningful share of the corpus.
Foundational claims are old and narrow
The two most-cited records both date to metallization and electrode-formation processes for PERC cells, filed well before the module-interconnection language that defines this search. Newer stringing and lamination-specific filings have not yet accumulated comparable citation weight.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to perc solar cell module manufacturing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
With 24 families total and momentum concentrated in a single recent filer, this is not a field with an entrenched incumbent structure — it is a field with a few active claimants and substantial open ground.
TP Solar Ltd is the only active filer in the latest year
Every other tracked assignee shows zero filings in the most recent year, including Avalon Solar Tech Pty Ltd, which recorded a -100% year-over-year change. That leaves the near-term filing signal thin and concentrated in one entity.
Co-assignment is limited to a small cluster
Ten co-assignee pairs exist across the corpus, with the strongest links each appearing twice — Prince Alistair Graeme, Willmott Peter James and Murakami Mamoru form the densest cluster. This points to a small group of individual inventors working across related filings rather than large corporate co-filing networks.
No assignee dominates a small field
With only 24 families in the entire assignee ranking, even a modest filing count constitutes meaningful share. This favours new entrants who can secure two or three well-targeted filings over incumbents relying on volume.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| TP SOLAR LTD | 1 | — |
| Resonac Holdings Corporation | 0 | — |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | 0 | — |
| Plant Photovoltaic Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| PRINCE ALISTAIR GRAEME | 0 | — |
| AVALON SOLAR TECH PTY LTD | 0 | -100% |
| WILLMOTT PETER JAMES | 0 | — |
| MURAKAMI MAMORU | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and assignee data point to specific next questions for anyone deciding where to file or where to watch.
Model the interconnection sub-claims directly
The core cell-architecture claims (metallization, electrode formation) are old and heavily cited; the module-interconnection and lamination language that defines this search is comparatively unclaimed. A focused claim-mapping exercise on stringing and lamination steps alone would clarify how much room remains.
Explore claim mapping in EurekaTrack the single active recent filer
TP Solar Ltd is the only assignee with a filing in the latest year. Monitoring its filing family and citation activity going forward is the cheapest way to catch the next shift in this niche before volume returns.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about PERC module manufacturing patents
This landscape identifies 24 published patent families that combine PERC or passivated-emitter-rear-contact terminology with module-assembly steps such as cell stringing, interconnection and lamination. That is a small corpus compared with PERC cell chemistry generally, because it isolates the specific seam between cell architecture and module assembly. The number will grow as filings from the last 18 months complete publication, since publication lags filing by roughly that long.
No single assignee dominates this corpus; filing activity is spread across a small number of entities including TP Solar Ltd, which is the only assignee with a recorded filing in the latest tracked year. Several other tracked assignees, including Avalon Solar Tech Pty Ltd, show no filings in the most recent year after being active earlier. The field currently favours whoever files next over any single incumbent with sustained volume.
Filing activity in this dataset rose to a peak of six records in 2018, then fell away entirely by the 2022 midpoint before showing a small resumption toward 2026. That pattern is consistent with a specific technical problem — likely early cell-to-module interconnection loss — being addressed by a cluster of filers around 2017-2019, after which interest cooled until newer manufacturing issues, such as bifacial or shingled designs, prompted fresh filings.
EP4602658A1, filed by Avalon Solar Technologies Pty. Ltd. and published in August 2025, covers bifacial PERC solar cells and their manufacturing method. As one of the most recent filings in this corpus, it represents current claim activity at the bifacial end of PERC design rather than the older metallization patents that carry the highest citation counts. Whether it blocks a specific new entrant depends on how narrowly its manufacturing-method claims are drafted relative to the process steps in question, which requires a direct claim read rather than a landscape-level judgment.
The clearest gaps sit in module-side integration steps rather than cell architecture: glass-side encapsulant adhesion for bifacial modules, shingled-interconnect metal film stacking, laser-fired-contact integration at the module level, conductive-adhesive stringing for thin wafers, and solder-free ribbon interconnection all show thin or no dedicated coverage in this corpus. These are technically specific enough to support a focused first filing, since the core cell-level metallization and electrode-formation claims are already well established and heavily cited by comparison.
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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.