Perovskite-Silicon Tandem Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing peaked in 2023 at seven records, then fell back — a small, still-consolidating corpus rather than a runaway filing race.
- One record, US20200212243A1, carries 30 citations, far ahead of anything else in the set and a strong signal of where downstream work has clustered.
- H10K (organic semiconductors) shows up in nine of twelve families, meaning transport-layer and interlayer chemistry, not the silicon bottom cell, is where claims are being written.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of perovskite-silicon tandem architectures and the advanced materials that make them work in practice: wide-bandgap perovskite absorbers, passivation layers, self-assembled monolayers, and charge transport materials. The search combines tandem-architecture language in the title/abstract with materials-specific claim terms, filtered to the IPC classes covering organic semiconductor devices, general semiconductor devices, and photovoltaic cells.
Twelve families is a small corpus for a technology this actively researched in journals, which itself is informative: patent activity in the advanced-materials layer of tandem cells is still early relative to the science. Filing published in the most recent year is always understated because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so any apparent drop-off near the data cut-off should be read with that lag in mind rather than as a real slowdown.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Twelve published families sit inside the search window, concentrated around a single peak year and split across four IPC subclasses that point to where the claimed inventions actually sit — mostly in the transport and passivation layers rather than the silicon substrate itself.
A short, front-loaded filing curve
Activity was flat through the late 2010s, rose to a peak of seven records in 2023, and pulled back through the midpoint year of 2022 showing no filings — consistent with a research-stage field where a handful of groups filed in a concentrated window rather than sustained year-on-year growth.
Claims cluster in organic semiconductor and general semiconductor classes
H10K (organic semiconductors, the class covering most transport and interlayer materials) appears in nine of twelve families, and H01L (semiconductor devices generally) in seven. C09D (coatings, paints and inks) and H10F (photovoltaic-specific devices) each appear only twice — a sign that coating-chemistry and device-level claims are comparatively open relative to the transport-material core.
Shares are the percentage of the 12 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Perovskite-Silicon Tandem Solar Cell Advanced Materials with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this corpus
High-efficiency perovskite-based device with metal fluoride interlayer and method
The claimed device places an ultrathin metal fluoride layer in direct contact with the perovskite layer, between the perovskite and the second electrode, alongside a hole transport layer on the opposite side of the silicon layer. The interlayer sits at the perovskite/electrode interface — a passivation point that several other filings in this set also target with different chemistries.Filed by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, published 2023-08-31.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200212243A1 | Method for manufacturing perovskite silicon tandem solar cell | 30 |
| 2 | WO2023161798A1 | High-efficiency perovskite-based device with metal fluoride interlayer and method | 4 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; recent filings have not had time to accumulate citations.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (2 of 2 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say about the field
With only twelve families, this landscape rewards reading the composition and citation pattern closely rather than looking for large-sample trends.
One filing dominates downstream reference
US20200212243A1, a method for manufacturing perovskite silicon tandem solar cells, is cited 30 times against a next-highest of 4 for WO2023161798A1. That gap suggests foundational manufacturing-method claims were staked early, and later filings are building narrower material or interlayer variations around them rather than re-litigating the base process.
Transport and interlayer chemistry is the active claim zone
Nine of twelve families sit in H10K, the organic semiconductor class covering most transport-layer and interlayer materials, versus only two each in coatings (C09D) and photovoltaic-specific devices (H10F). Filers are staking claims on the materials sandwiched between absorber and electrode, not on the photovoltaic device architecture itself.
A short filing window, not a steady climb
The trend line is flat through the late 2010s, spikes to seven records in the single peak year, and shows nothing at the 2022 midpoint. That pattern reads as a small number of research groups and universities filing in a compressed window rather than an industry-wide filing race with sustained year-on-year growth.
Filing is concentrated in US and European offices
Five records were filed with the United States and three with the European Patent Office, with WIPO/PCT, India and Poland each holding one or two. That distribution points to US and European institutions as the primary filers, with limited filing breadth into other national offices so far.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The assignee set is a mix of university research groups and solar manufacturers, none showing filing activity in the latest year — consistent with the small, front-loaded corpus rather than any single player pulling ahead.
A dispersed field with no dominant filer
Twelve families spread across university labs and solar manufacturers with none showing recent-year momentum, indicating the field has not yet consolidated around one or two dominant assignees. That leaves room for a new entrant with a strong materials claim to establish a position before the field consolidates.
Research institutions sit alongside commercial filers
The assignee list mixes university groups with solar-cell manufacturers, a pattern typical of a materials-science-adjacent field still moving from lab demonstration toward manufacturable process claims. Watch for university filings converting into licensing deals with manufacturers as the technology matures.
Filing strategy favours US and European coverage first
The receiving-office split shows US and European filings dominating, with PCT applications suggesting some filers are keeping international options open rather than committing early to a full multi-jurisdiction strategy. India and Poland each hold a single filing, marking early or opportunistic coverage rather than a deliberate regional push.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| LG Electronics | 0 | — |
| Swift Solar | 0 | — |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | 0 | — |
| King Abdullah University of Science and Technology | 0 | — |
| JA Solar Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| VISVESVARAYA NAT INST OF TECH NAGPUR | 0 | — |
Where to take this research
This landscape is a starting point for a freedom-to-operate check or a design-around exercise, not a substitute for one.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the leading claim
US20200212243A1's manufacturing-method claims carry the most citations in this set — any commercial process should be checked against its claim scope before committing to a fabrication route.
Explore this family in Eureka →Map the interlayer and passivation claim space in full
With H10K and H01L covering most of the corpus and C09D/H10F thin, a deeper pull on coating and interlayer chemistry claims would clarify how much room remains before filing.
Build a custom search in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
The single most-cited record in this dataset is US20200212243A1, a manufacturing-method patent for perovskite silicon tandem solar cells, cited 30 times — well ahead of the next record. Beyond that leading filing, the assignee base is a mix of universities and solar manufacturers with no single company holding a dominant share of the twelve tracked families. That pattern suggests the field is still open rather than locked up by one player, though the leading method patent should be checked carefully by anyone planning a similar manufacturing process.
Most claims in this corpus target the layers between the perovskite absorber and the electrodes rather than the silicon bottom cell or the perovskite composition alone. Nine of twelve families fall under the H10K organic semiconductor class, which covers transport materials and interlayers, while only two fall under the photovoltaic-device-specific H10F class. Passivation materials, self-assembled monolayers and metal fluoride interlayers are the recurring claim subjects, reflecting where efficiency losses at material interfaces are being addressed.
Not based on this dataset — twelve published families across roughly a decade is a small corpus, even accounting for publication lag understating the most recent years. Filing peaked at seven records in a single year and shows no clear sustained growth trend, which points to a research-stage field rather than one with heavy competitive filing pressure. That said, small corpus size can mean thin prior art in some spots and a genuinely blocking foundational patent in others, so absence of volume is not the same as absence of risk.
WO2023161798A1, filed by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, claims a perovskite/silicon tandem device with an ultrathin metal fluoride layer placed directly in contact with the perovskite layer, positioned between the perovskite and the second electrode. It is specific to metal fluoride chemistry in that interlayer position, so it does not automatically block other passivation chemistries at the same interface, but anyone using a metal fluoride layer in that same location should review the claim scope closely. It is the second most-cited record in this set, indicating meaningful downstream attention to that interlayer approach.
Self-assembled monolayer hole-selective contacts, wide-bandgap perovskite coating formulations, and textured-silicon interface passivation all show thin representation in the current IPC composition, particularly outside the dominant H10K and H01L classes. The C09D coatings class and H10F photovoltaic-device class each hold only two of twelve families, suggesting coating-chemistry and device-integration claims are comparatively underdeveloped relative to core transport-material claims. Any of these branches would need a proper freedom-to-operate search before filing, since a thin count in this specific search does not guarantee an empty claim landscape more broadly.
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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.