PIC Testing & Inspection Patents: Leaders, Trends & Gaps 2026
- Filing has gone flat, not up. activity peaked at 5 families in 2025 after sitting at 2 for most of the mid-2010s, with no clear upward trend through the midpoint year.
- Wafer-level optical probing is the dense zone. the two most-cited records in the set both cover the same probing-structure concept, filed roughly two years apart by the same assignee lineage.
- Filing is US-centric. 19 of the tracked records entered through the USPTO against 4 PCT filings and 2 at the EPO, so design-around review outside the US carries a thinner prior-art base.
Filing growth compares 2021 (3 records) with 2024 (3) — 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 25 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families at the intersection of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design and the test infrastructure built around it: wafer-level optical test, optical probing, loss measurement, and in-line inspection. The IPC scope centres on G02B6/12 (optical waveguides), G01M11 (optical instrument testing), and H01L22 (semiconductor test structures), which keeps the set focused on measurement and inspection hardware rather than PIC device claims generally.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years in any trend chart will read lower than actual filing activity once those applications publish.
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Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 25-family set: how filing has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim volume.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings opened the period at 2 in 2017, sat at 2 again at the 2022 midpoint, and reached a peak of 5 in 2025 before the partial, still-publishing 2026 year. That shape is flat-to-declining across the middle of the window rather than a steady climb — read the 2025 peak as the most reliable recent signal, and treat 2026 as undercounted pending publication.
IPC subclass composition
G02B (optical elements & systems) anchors every record in the set by construction of the search, with H01L (semiconductor devices) a distant second at 10 records — evidence that most testing and inspection claims are drafted as optics claims first, semiconductor-process claims second. G01M (testing machinery), F21V, G01R, G01N, G06F and H10P each contribute single digits, marking them as secondary claim angles rather than core filing strategies.
Shares are the percentage of the 25 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Photonic Integrated Circuit Testing and Inspection with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about photonic integrated circuit testing and inspection and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US20240402486A1 — Signal propagation simulation tool including virtual optical probing and/or bidirectional simulation
Systems and methods for designing photonic integrated circuits (PICs) include a simulation program with virtual optical probing functions and, optionally, bidirectional optical signal propagation simulation. For probing, a processor receives an output expression specifying a virtual optical probing function (e.g., for power in dBm, etc.) and a net within a PIC design. If different simulation types are enabled, the expression specifies simulation type. If bidirectionality is enabled, the expression specifies the forward or reverse direction. In response, the processor accesses the PIC design and results of simulation(s) thereof and calculates and outputs an optical signal parameter value.Filed by GLOBALFOUNDRIES U.S. INC., published 2024-12-05 — notable for shifting optical probing from a physical wafer-level test step into a design-time simulation function.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20180313718A1 | Wafer level optical probing structures for silicon photonics | 43 |
| 2 | US20160341896A1 | Methods and systems relating to optical waveguide tapers | 19 |
| 3 | US10145758B2 | Wafer level optical probing structures for silicon photonics | 15 |
| 4 | US11163120B2 | Fiber attach enabled wafer level fanout | 14 |
| 5 | US20200225401A1 | Integrated Freeform Optical Couplers | 13 |
| 6 | US20200158959A1 | Fiber Attach Enabled Wafer Level Fanout | 13 |
| 7 | US11837509B1 | Method of manufacturing and packaging silicon photonics integrated circuit dies in wafer form | 9 |
| 8 | US9829629B2 | Methods and systems relating to optical waveguide tapers | 8 |
| 9 | EP4001980A1 | Contactless optical probing of edge-coupled photonic ics | 5 |
| 10 | US11378733B2 | Integrated freeform optical couplers | 2 |
Citation counts favour older publications simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus — treat this table as a map of influence on subsequent filings, not a ranking of current technical importance.
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Three read-throughs from the trend, citation, and jurisdiction data above.
Growth is flat, not compounding
A midpoint of 2 families in 2022 followed by a 5-family peak in 2025 is a step, not a trend line. Before reading this as an accelerating field, wait for 2026 filings to finish publishing — the current 0 for 2026 is an artefact of the publication lag, not a drop-off.
Wafer-level probing structures are the most-referenced concept
Two of the top five cited records describe wafer level optical probing structures for silicon photonics, filed by the same assignee lineage a few years apart. Anyone drafting probing-structure claims should expect to design around this pair specifically, not just the general concept.
The prior art base is US-heavy
With 19 of 25 records entering through the USPTO, freedom-to-operate work centred only on US filings will miss most of the non-US signal — but there is also less prior art on record outside the US, which can matter for parallel filing strategy.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to photonic integrated circuit testing and inspection, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is open
Assignee activity in this set is thin enough that no single player shows sustained year-over-year growth — most tracked names, including Intel Corporation and Cisco Technology, Inc., register zero filings in the latest year.
No assignee is currently accelerating
Every assignee with recent-year momentum data shows either 0 filings in the latest year or a -100% YoY drop from a single prior filing. That is consistent with a field of small, intermittent filers rather than one with an active leader compounding its position.
Collaboration is individual-led, not institutional
The strongest co-assignee links — ZUO HAIJIE with YU SHAOLIANG, HU JUEJUN, and GU TIAN, each appearing twice — centre on one named inventor rather than a corporate joint-filing program, suggesting this is closer to a research group's output than a multi-company alliance.
A small, fragmented field
Twenty-five families across a decade is a narrow base. It rewards a close read of the most-cited handful over broad statistical claims about market leadership, since any single filer's activity can swing the yearly count.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Elenion Technologies | 0 | -100% |
| École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) | 0 | -100% |
| Lumentum Operations LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Intel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Cisco Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
| ZUO HAIJIE | 0 | — |
| YU SHAOLIANG | 0 | — |
| QUITORIANO NATHANIEL | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing, or monitoring.
Run a design-around check on the probing-structure pair
The two highest-cited records both describe wafer-level optical probing structures for silicon photonics. Any new probing-structure claim should be checked against both before drafting.
Explore in EurekaWatch the 2025–2026 publication window
The 2025 peak and empty 2026 year are both provisional until the publication lag clears. Re-run the trend query in early 2027 to see whether 2025's step-up held or reverted.
Track filings in EurekaScope claims around simulation-based probing
US20240402486A1 signals a shift toward virtual/simulated optical probing rather than purely physical wafer-level test. Claims that bridge simulation and physical probing sit in a less crowded part of this landscape.
Analyze this patent in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
This landscape tracks 25 patent families published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, filtered to wafer-level optical test, optical probing, loss measurement, and in-line inspection claims under IPC classes G02B6/12, G01M11, and H01L22. That is a narrow, specialist field rather than a broad category, so counts can shift noticeably with small changes to the search scope. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true count for 2025 and 2026 is higher than what has published so far.
No single assignee shows sustained growth in this dataset — most tracked names, including large firms like Intel Corporation (Intel) and Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco), register zero filings in the latest tracked year. The most-cited individual records trace to a lineage of wafer-level optical probing structure patents, and the strongest co-filing links in the set are centred on individual named inventors rather than corporate programs. This points to a fragmented field of intermittent filers rather than one with a clear incumbent leader.
The most-cited record in this set is US20180313718A1, 'Wafer level optical probing structures for silicon photonics,' with 43 citations, followed by a related patent, US10145758B2, sharing the same title with 15 citations. High citation counts in a searched corpus tend to favour older publications simply because they have had more time to accumulate references, so treat these as markers of influence on later filings rather than proof of current commercial importance.
Based on the IPC composition in this dataset, sub-areas like automated in-line defect classification, bidirectional optical simulation for probing, fiber-attach fanout test structures, and inspection approaches drawing on material analysis (G01N) or electric/magnetic measurement (G01R) carry noticeably fewer filings than core wafer-level probing and loss measurement. Fewer filings does not guarantee an easy path to allowance, but it does mean less crowded claim space to search and draft around. A close read of the existing filings in those subclasses is a reasonable first step before committing to a claim strategy there.
The apparent drop to 0 filings in 2026 is very likely a publication-lag artefact rather than a real decline. Patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing, so 2025 and especially 2026 filings are still working through that pipeline and will continue to appear in this dataset as time passes. The more reliable recent signal is the 2025 peak of 5 families, and even that should be treated as a snapshot rather than a settled trend given the small overall dataset size.
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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.