Physical Vapor Deposition Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 13.7% concentration at the very top. The five leading assignees combined account for 25,909 of the 189,096 records in scope — a moderately concentrated field with room below the leaders.
- Filings peaked in 2019, then eased. Annual filings ran 723 in 2017 to a peak of 877 in 2019, then declined -45% from 732 (2021) to 404 (2024), the last year publication lag leaves reliable.
- Coating claims still outnumber device claims. C23C (coating & surface deposition) covers 4.7% of records, ahead of H01L (semiconductor devices) at 3.3% — the core deposition process, not just its downstream chip use, still anchors this field.
Filing growth compares 2021 (732 records) with 2024 (404) — 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 189,096 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the physical vapor deposition patent record actually shows
Physical vapor deposition sits at the intersection of two claim traditions: coating and surface-treatment processes filed under C23C, and the semiconductor fabrication equipment and thin-film transistor work filed under H01L. The search set spans 2015 through the 2026 cut-off and captures 189,096 published records, ranked across 100 assignees that range from equipment builders to foundries and materials suppliers.
Filing volume rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2019, and has since pulled back — a pattern consistent with a maturing process technology whose claim space around core deposition rate, film thickness and adhesion control is increasingly occupied. That does not mean the technology is finished: it means new filings increasingly have to differentiate against dense prior art rather than stake out open ground.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 189,096-record set: the year-by-year filing curve, and the IPC subclasses that carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings climbed from 723 in 2017 to a peak of 877 in 2019, then fell to 404 by 2024 — a -45% move from the 2021 level of 732. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in under normal publication lag and should not be read as a continued decline.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C23C (coating & surface deposition) leads at 4.7% of the 189,096 records, followed by H01L (semiconductor devices) at 3.3%. Layered products (B32B), electron tubes (H01J), coating processes (B05D), optics (G02B) and batteries (H01M) each sit under 1%, indicating narrower but still active claim activity outside the two dominant classes. Records can carry multiple IPC codes, so these shares overlap rather than sum to 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 189,096 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Physical Vapor Deposition Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about physical vapor deposition patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US10950448B2 — Film quality control in a linear scan physical vapor deposition process
Methods and apparatus for control of the quality of films deposited via physical vapor deposition are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of depositing a film using linear scan physical vapor deposition includes: determining a deposition rate of a material to be deposited on a substrate in a linear scan physical vapor deposition process; calculating a scan rate of the substrate to achieve deposition of the material to a desired thickness in a single pass when deposited at the deposition rate; and performing the linear scan physical vapor deposition process while moving the substrate at the calculated scan rate.Assigned to Applied Materials, Inc.; published 2021-03-16.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20040127038A1 | Transparent oxide semiconductor thin film transistors | 4,349 |
| 2 | US20080182358A1 | Process for atomic layer deposition | 4,311 |
| 3 | US20080083950A1 | Fused nanocrystal thin film semiconductor and method | 4,285 |
| 4 | US20060035452A1 | Transparent oxide semiconductor thin film transistor | 4,222 |
| 5 | US7431968B1 | Process and apparatus for organic vapor jet deposition | 2,575 |
| 6 | US20070010702A1 | Medical device with low magnetic susceptibility | 1,511 |
| 7 | US6268695B1 | Environmental barrier material for organic light emitting device and method of making | 1,230 |
| 8 | US20060142651A1 | Analyte sensor | 972 |
| 9 | US20070163880A1 | Analyte sensor | 967 |
| 10 | US20050287771A1 | Liquid precursors for the CVD deposition of amorphous carbon films | 855 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references; treat them as a signal of influence within this dataset, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Four read-outs from the assignee ranking, the filing curve and the IPC composition, aimed at where to file next and who to watch.
Leadership is real but not dominant
The top five combined hold 13.7% of all records, and the top ten hold 20.0%. That leaves roughly four-fifths of the field distributed across the remaining ranked assignees and unranked filers — a field with clear leaders but no single gatekeeper.
Volume is pulling back from its 2019 peak
After peaking at 877 filings in 2019, annual volume fell to 404 by 2024, down 45% from the 732 filed in 2021. Recent-year assignee data shows steep single-year drops across major filers, though 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete under normal publication lag.
Coating process claims still lead device claims
C23C (coating & surface deposition) covers 4.7% of the 189,096 records, ahead of H01L (semiconductor devices) at 3.3%. The gap suggests process-level deposition control — rate, thickness, adhesion — remains the more heavily claimed layer, with device integration claims a distinct but smaller tier.
Filing activity is US-anchored with a European and PCT tier below
The United States receives 11,906 records, well ahead of the EPO at 3,478 and WIPO/PCT at 2,669, with Canada, Australia and Singapore forming a smaller secondary tier. Strategy built only around US filing risks missing the EPO and PCT routes that a meaningful minority of applicants already use.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to physical vapor deposition patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and where new claims can still land
The ranked leaders span equipment makers, foundries and materials suppliers, with recent-year momentum data showing sharp pullbacks even among the most active filers.
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 10,655 records against a fifth-place figure of 2,741 and a tenth-place figure of 2,190 — a steep drop-off after the leader, then a more gradual taper through the rest of the ranked group.
Even active filers pulled back sharply
Recent-year momentum shows steep single-year declines across several major assignees, some falling to zero latest-year filings. This is consistent with the broader -45% three-year filing decline and with publication lag understating the most recent years rather than showing genuine abandonment.
Co-filing is limited and concentrated
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairs cluster around a small number of equipment and materials organisations working with named inventors or affiliated entities, rather than broad cross-company joint filing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | 3 | -81% |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 2 | -95% |
| Lam Research Corp. | 1 | -50% |
| General Electric Company | 0 | -100% |
| Canon Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Tokyo Electron Limited | 0 | -100% |
| Oerlikon Surface Solutions AG, Trübbach | 0 | -100% |
| International Business Machines Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking or identifying open claim space.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leading assignees
With the top five holding 13.7% of all 189,096 records, a targeted clearance search against the ranked leaders' portfolios is more efficient than a blind full-corpus review before committing to a coating or deposition-control claim.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTrack momentum, not just headline counts
Latest-year YoY figures show steep pullbacks even among major filers; treat 2025-2026 counts as incomplete and re-check momentum once another 18 months of publication lag has cleared.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaScope claims into the thinner IPC branches
Battery, optical-element and layered-laminate overlaps carry under 1% of records each, well below the core C23C and H01L classes — a narrower but potentially clearer path for new claims.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about the physical vapor deposition patent landscape
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by record count, with the leading assignee holding 10,655 records — well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 2,741 and tenth place at 2,190. The top five combined account for 13.7% of all 189,096 records in scope, and the top ten for 20.0%. That leaves the majority of records spread across the remaining ranked assignees and filers outside the ranking, so no single company controls the field outright.
Filing volume rose from 723 in 2017 to a peak of 877 in 2019, then declined to 404 by 2024, a -45% drop from the 732 filed in 2021. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in the dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of a continuing fall. The safest read is that filing activity cooled from its 2019 peak through 2024, with the most recent years still an open question.
C23C, the coating and surface deposition class, is the largest single IPC subclass at 4.7% of the 189,096 records, ahead of H01L (semiconductor devices) at 3.3%. Smaller but distinct clusters exist in layered products (B32B), electron and discharge tubes (H01J), coating processes (B05D), optical elements (G02B) and batteries (H01M), each under 1% of records. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares overlap rather than summing to 100%, so they describe density in each area rather than an exclusive split.
The branches with the thinnest IPC density relative to the two dominant classes are battery-electrode coating applications, optical-element deposition control, layered-laminate interface adhesion, and electron-tube source design — each sitting under 1% of the 189,096 records. These are not unclaimed, but they carry far less filing density than the core C23C coating and H01L semiconductor classes, which makes them a reasonable starting point for scoping a narrower, more defensible claim. Any filing decision there should still be checked against the specific assignees active in that overlap.
US10950448B2, assigned to Applied Materials, Inc. and published 2021-03-16, covers methods and apparatus for controlling film quality in a linear scan physical vapor deposition process — specifically determining a deposition rate, calculating a scan rate to hit a target thickness in a single pass, and moving the substrate at that calculated rate. It is a representative example of process-control claiming in this field rather than a claim over the deposition technique itself. Anyone building linear-scan PVD equipment or process control software should review its claim scope directly rather than relying on the abstract alone.
Research Physical Vapor Deposition Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole physical vapor deposition patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.