PERC Solar Cell Patents: Who Leads, Where Filings Peaked 2026
- Filing already peaked. 2017 was the high-water mark at 12 filings; by the 2022 midpoint the annual count had fallen to 5, and the trend has not recovered — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- China dominates the filing venue. 40 of the 50 tracked families were filed through the Chinese receiving office, versus 5 at the EPO, 3 in India and 2 in the US — scale-up IP for PERC is being built and defended overwhelmingly in China.
- One co-filing pair anchors the field. Zhejiang Aiko Solar Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. co-file together 11 times, the strongest assignee pairing in the dataset, and neither shows any filings in the latest tracked year.
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 records) with 2024 (1) — 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 50 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of PERC (passivated emitter and rear contact) cell design and the production-engineering side of the technology: screen-printing scale-up, PECVD scale-up, high-throughput fabrication and production-line claims, filtered against the core semiconductor and coating IPC classes. It captures the industrial half of PERC patenting — how the cell gets made at volume — rather than every PERC device claim ever filed.
Fifty families span 2015 through the 2026 cutoff, concentrated overwhelmingly in the H01L semiconductor-device subclass with a smaller cluster in C23C coating and deposition. Publication for the most recent filing years is still incomplete, since grant and publication typically lag filing by around 18 months, so the apparent decline after 2017 is real in direction but understated in its most recent points.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 50-family dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
A single early peak, then decline
Filings hit 12 in 2017, the peak so far, then eased to 5 by 2022 and continued down toward the cutoff. That shape is consistent with a process that reached commercial scale early and then saw claim-writing activity taper as the core production techniques settled into standard practice — not with a technology still being actively defined.
H01L carries the claim weight
All 50 records touch H01L (semiconductor devices), with a much smaller secondary cluster in C23C (coating and surface deposition, 5 records) and single-digit counts scattered across H10P, C30B crystal growth, and even peripheral classes like printing machinery and cleaning equipment — evidence that most inventive effort was captured as device/structure claims rather than as standalone equipment or process claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 50 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 Scale-Up and Mass Production with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about perc solar cell scale-up and mass production and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records
PERC-Batterie-Rückpassivierungsstruktur (EP4307394A1)
Provided in the present invention are a PERC battery back passivation structure, and a PERC battery and a preparation method therefor. The PERC battery back passivation structure comprises a crystalline silicon oxide layer, which is arranged on the back face of a silicon substrate. Further provided in the present invention are a PERC battery back passivation structure and a PERC battery comprising same. The PERC battery back passivation structure comprises a first crystalline silicon oxide layer, a gallium oxide layer, a second crystalline silicon oxide layer and at least two back-face silicon nitride layers, which are sequentially stacked on the back face of the silicon substrate.Filed by Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics Co. Ltd., published 2024-01-17 — a rare non-Chinese-office filing (EPO) in a dataset otherwise dominated by CN-filed families.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN107221568A | 一种选择发射极双面PERC电池的制备方法 | 15 |
| 2 | CN106449870A | 一种PERC太阳能电池生产线 | 13 |
| 3 | CN105047765A | 用于钝化发射极背面接触晶硅太阳电池的返工工艺 | 13 |
| 4 | CN108922941A | 一种太阳能PERC电池的制备方法 | 11 |
| 5 | CN114203856A | 一种太阳能光伏电池低压水平磷扩散生产线 | 10 |
| 6 | CN111416011A | 一种p型PERC晶硅太阳电池及制备方法 | 8 |
| 7 | CN110106493A | 利用管式PECVD设备制备背面钝化膜的方法 | 8 |
| 8 | CN106876499A | 一种改进型P型PERC双面太阳能电池及其制备方法 | 7 |
| 9 | CN112563370A | 单晶PERC晶硅电池背钝化制备工艺及PERC太阳能电池 | 5 |
| 10 | CN106024970A | 设备兼容的晶硅电池刻蚀方法和PERC电池酸抛光方法 | 5 |
Citation counts reward older filings simply because they have had more time to be cited; read this table as a map of influence within the corpus, not as a ranking of current technical 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
The dataset points to a technology whose core production claims were staked out early, mostly by Chinese manufacturers, with the claim space now settling rather than expanding.
The peak has passed
Filings ran at 12 in 2017 and none of the leading assignees show activity in the latest tracked year. Combined with publication lag, this likely overstates the slowdown at the very edge of the window, but the multi-year decline through the 2022 midpoint is a genuine signal that core production-scale-up claims are largely staked out.
China is the venue of record
Only 5 families went through the EPO, 3 through India, and 2 through the US. Anyone benchmarking freedom-to-operate outside China should treat this dataset as a partial view of the global picture — the production know-how may exist elsewhere but has not been captured here as patent filings in those jurisdictions.
One manufacturing group anchors the corpus
Zhejiang Aiko Solar Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. co-file together 11 times — the single strongest pairing in the dataset — pointing to a tightly coordinated corporate IP strategy across what are likely affiliated entities within the same manufacturing group.
Device claims dominate over process/equipment claims
Every tracked record touches H01L, while only 5 touch C23C coating and deposition specifically, and single digits scatter across crystal growth, printing machinery and cleaning equipment. That imbalance suggests equipment- and line-level claims are comparatively under-filed relative to device-structure claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to perc solar cell scale-up and mass production, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignees shaping the claim space
A small group of Chinese cell and module manufacturers accounts for most of the tracked filing activity, with no single assignee showing filings in the latest tracked year — consistent with a claim space that has moved from active staking to maintenance.
爱旭 (Aiko) group entities
Zhejiang Aiko Solar Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. form the densest co-assignee relationship in the dataset, filing 11 families together — evidence of a coordinated group-level IP strategy rather than independent invention.
Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics Co., Ltd. (Hengdian Group DMEGC)
Appears both in the standalone assignee list and behind the representative EP filing on back-passivation structure, indicating filing activity that spans device structure and reaches outside the Chinese receiving office into Europe.
湖南红太阳, 通威太阳能, 韩华新能源 and peers
A longer tail of specialist manufacturers and research-linked assignees — including Hunan Red Sun Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., Tongwei Solar (Anhui) Co., Ltd. and Hanwha New Energy (Qidong) Co., Ltd. — each hold smaller filing counts, reflecting distributed but modest patenting activity beyond the top pairing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Zhejiang Aiko Solar Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hunan Red Sun Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hanwha New Energy (Qidong) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sunshine Zhongke (Fujian) Energy Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Tongwei Solar (Anhui) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangxi Zhanyu New Energy Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
This landscape frames where PERC scale-up patenting has concentrated and where it has thinned out. The next step is applying that framing to a specific product, process step or freedom-to-operate question.
Map a specific production step against this corpus
Screen-printing, PECVD deposition and diffusion-line claims each show different density in this dataset. Checking a specific process step against the relevant IPC cluster narrows the question from 'is PERC crowded' to 'is this exact step crowded'.
Explore this topic in EurekaTrack the anchor assignee pairing
The 爱旭 group's 11 shared families is the single strongest signal of coordinated IP strategy in the dataset. Watching where that group files next — or stops filing — is a reasonable proxy for where the broader industry is heading.
Set up an assignee watch in EurekaRevisit after the next publication cycle
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the apparent falloff toward the cutoff year is partly an artefact of timing. Re-running this search in a year will fill in the most recent filing years more completely.
Re-run this landscape in EurekaCommon questions about PERC scale-up patents
Filing activity in this dataset peaked in 2017 at 12 families and had fallen to 5 by the 2022 midpoint, with no filings from the leading assignees in the latest tracked year. That points to a technology whose core production-scale-up claims were largely staked out in the mid-2010s rather than one still expanding. Some of the apparent recent decline is a publication-lag artefact, since grants typically take about 18 months to appear after filing, but the multi-year downward trend through 2022 is a genuine signal.
The dataset's strongest signal is a co-filing relationship: Zhejiang Aiko Solar Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. file together 11 times, more than any other pairing, suggesting a coordinated group IP strategy. Other named assignees include Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics Co., Ltd., which also filed the representative EP4307394A1 family, along with smaller filers such as Hunan Red Sun Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd. and Tongwei Solar (Anhui) Co., Ltd.. None of these assignees show filings in the most recent tracked year, consistent with the broader slowdown.
Of the 50 tracked families, 40 were filed via the Chinese receiving office, against 5 at the EPO, 3 in India and 2 in the US. This reflects where PERC cell manufacturing capacity is concentrated — China has been the dominant location for PERC production-line build-out, and manufacturers there file domestically first as a matter of course. It does not mean the underlying know-how is absent elsewhere, only that this search has not captured filings made through other receiving offices.
EP4307394A1, assigned to Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics Co. Ltd., claims a specific PERC back passivation structure: a stack of crystalline silicon oxide layers, a gallium oxide layer, and at least two back-face silicon nitride layers, arranged in sequence on the back of the silicon substrate. It is a structure and preparation-method claim rather than a broad process claim on PERC manufacturing generally. Anyone designing a rear passivation stack should compare their layer sequence and materials against this specific combination rather than assuming it blocks PERC passivation broadly.
The technology composition skews heavily toward H01L device-structure claims, with only 5 of 50 records in C23C coating and deposition and single digits in adjacent classes like crystal growth, printing machinery and cleaning equipment. That imbalance suggests narrower process and equipment claims — screen-printing paste rheology, PECVD throughput control, rework processes for rear-contact defects, and specific diffusion-line configurations — carry thinner claim density than the core passivation and cell-structure claims, and are worth checking before assuming the space is closed.
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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.