In this dataset it means a patent family whose title or abstract references a photonic integrated circuit, PIC, or silicon photonics, and whose claims or description also cover co-packaged optics, electronic-photonic integration, optical engine integration, or system-in-package techniques. The IPC filter further restricts the set to optical coupling structures (G02B6/42), semiconductor device stacking (H01L25/16), and high-speed optical transmission (H04B10/40). This combination targets the packaging and integration step specifically, not PIC design or fabrication in isolation.

The trend shows filings climbing from zero in 2017 to 66 in 2024, passing through 35 at the 2022 midpoint, which is a maturing curve rather than an accelerating one. A peak followed by a flatter or declining tail typically means the core technical approaches have already been claimed by early movers, and later filers are working in narrower, more crowded space. The final year or two of any patent trend is also understated because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, so some of the apparent slowdown may resolve once later filings publish.

The assignee ranking is topped by a small number of repeat filers, but the list also includes a long tail of entrants with only one or two families each, which is typical of a field still settling on dominant packaging architectures. Recent-year momentum data shows several previously active filers, including established semiconductor and photonics firms, recording zero filings in the latest year — though this may partly reflect publication lag rather than an actual stop in R&D. Reviewing the full ranking alongside recent-year momentum gives a more reliable picture than either figure alone.

The IPC composition shows optical elements and systems (G02B) heavily outweighing semiconductor device claims (H01L) and transmission claims (H04B), which points to the electronic-photonic co-design and interposer side of integration as comparatively under-claimed. Smaller subclasses such as H01S (lasers), H04Q (optical switching) and H10B (memory device manufacture) also show thin filing counts relative to the core set, suggesting narrower opportunities where laser source co-integration or switching fabric packaging overlaps with PIC system integration. Any white-space claim should still be checked against the most-cited records in the core G02B space, since adjacent claims can still be blocked by broad coupling-structure language.

Citation counts inside a fixed, searched corpus tend to favour older patents simply because they have had more years and more later filings to accumulate citations against them. The most-cited records in this dataset, several of which date to the 2019–2021 period, should be read as markers of technical influence on the field rather than as evidence that they remain the most commercially important patents today. Newer filings, including the 2025 representative record in this set, have not had time to accumulate comparable citation counts even if their claims are commercially significant.