Piezoelectric & Ultrasonic Transducer Patents: Top Companies 2026
- Filing has cooled since 2021. 232 families filed that peak year against 11 so far in the most recent year — though publication lag understates the latest count.
- Surgical and medical claims dominate citation influence. The most-cited records in the corpus are ultrasonic surgical generators and cutting devices, not consumer audio or sonar transducers.
- Co-filing is rare and concentrated. Only 10 co-assignee pairs exist across 4,124 families, and the strongest links are single corporate-group pairings such as Toshiba with Toshiba Medical Systems.
Filing growth compares 2021 (232 records) with 2024 (101) — 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 4,124 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 4,124 patent families filed against piezoelectric and ultrasonic transducer claims, spanning resonance frequency control, acoustic matching layers, electromechanical coupling and array fabrication. The search string pulls from B06B1, H10N30 and G01N29 — mechanical vibration generation, solid-state electric devices and material testing — so the corpus sits at the intersection of acoustic hardware and its diagnostic or surgical end uses.
Filings run from 2015 through the third quarter of 2026, with the trend line covering 2017 onward. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be once the backlog clears.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A cycle that peaked in 2021 and has not recovered
Filings rose from 193 in 2017 to a peak of 232 in 2021, then declined toward a midpoint of 104 in 2022. The pattern reads as flat-to-declining rather than a market still expanding, though the tail years are undercounted due to publication lag.
Mechanical vibration and solid-state devices lead, medical use is close behind
B06B (generating mechanical vibrations) covers the largest share at 2,775 records, with H10N (solid-state electric devices) at 1,484 and G01N (material testing) at 1,183. A61B (diagnosis and surgery) at 1,173 and H01L (semiconductor devices) at 934 show how much of this hardware is claimed for medical and chip-adjacent use rather than pure acoustics.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,124 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Piezoelectric and Ultrasonic Transducers with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about piezoelectric and ultrasonic transducers and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe record that still shapes claim drafting
US4795935A — Ultrasonic transducer (Terumo Corporation, 1989)
An ultrasonic transducer includes a piezoelectric body having a reflector and an acoustic matching layer deposited on the opposing surfaces thereof. The piezoelectric body is constituted by a piezoelectric member exhibiting an acoustic impedance of from 2.5×10^6 to 15×10^6 kg/m^2 s, and the reflector has a thickness of less than lambda2/4, where lambda2 represents the wavelength of sound in the reflector at a frequency which is one half the free resonance frequency of the piezoelectric body. The acoustic matching layer includes a material exhibiting an acoustic impedance of from 1.6×10^6 to 4×10^6 kg/m^2 s.Filed by Terumo Corporation, granted 1989 — predates the bulk of this corpus and defines the impedance and thickness relationships still cited in matching-layer claims today.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US8058771B2 | Ultrasonic device for cutting and coagulating with stepped output | 1,814 |
| 2 | US9060775B2 | Surgical generator for ultrasonic and electrosurgical devices | 890 |
| 3 | US10263171B2 | Surgical generator for ultrasonic and electrosurgical devices | 576 |
| 4 | US6419648B1 | Systems and methods for reducing secondary hot spots in a phased array focused ultrasound system | 574 |
| 5 | US8779648B2 | Ultrasonic device for cutting and coagulating with stepped output | 556 |
| 6 | US5381067A | Electrical impedance normalization for an ultrasonic transducer array | 514 |
| 7 | US6569109B2 | Ultrasonic operation apparatus for performing follow-up control of resonance frequency drive of ultrasonic os… | 489 |
| 8 | US5406503A | Control system for calibrating and driving ultrasonic transducer | 487 |
| 9 | US4965532A | Circuit for driving ultrasonic transducer | 476 |
| 10 | US20070063618A1 | Ultrasonic transducer devices and methods of manufacture | 444 |
Citation counts favour older, foundational filings — read them as a signal of influence within this searched set, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting into this space.
The cycle has turned, not just paused
Filings climbed steadily to a 2021 peak before falling through a midpoint of 104 in 2022 and continuing down. That is a flat-to-declining trajectory even allowing for the fact that the last one or two years are undercounted by publication lag.
Vibration generation is the most crowded subclass
B06B carries more than double the filings of the next subclass, H10N. A new entrant claiming basic vibration-generation mechanisms is filing into the densest part of the corpus; differentiation has to sit in matching-layer materials, array geometry or drive electronics instead.
Surgical generators anchor the citation graph
The most-cited records in this corpus are ultrasonic surgical cutting and coagulation devices and their generators, not sonar, audio or industrial sensing transducers. Anyone drafting matching-layer or drive-frequency claims for medical devices is filing near this cluster's centre of gravity.
Co-filing is rare and stays inside corporate groups
With only 10 co-assignee pairs identified across the whole corpus, collaborative filing is the exception. The strongest pairings link a parent and its medical-systems subsidiary rather than independent companies, suggesting cross-company joint IP in this space is genuinely uncommon.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to piezoelectric and ultrasonic transducers, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum has gone quiet
Recent-year momentum across tracked assignees is muted across the board — several show zero filings in the latest year, and the one with recent activity is declining sharply.
Even the leader is pulling back
The assignee with the most recent-year activity in this tracked set still shows a 90% year-on-year decline, filing just one family in the latest year. No tracked assignee is accelerating.
IP consolidates inside corporate families
The clearest collaboration signal in this dataset comes from parent-subsidiary pairs — a medical-systems division filing alongside its parent, or an imaging unit alongside a research university partner — rather than from arm's-length joint ventures.
The US is the primary filing venue by a wide margin
United States filings outnumber the next-largest office, the EPO, by more than two to one, with WIPO PCT, China, Japan and Canada trailing further behind. Strategy built only around US and EPO coverage would still miss the WIPO and China filing pools.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Shashin Innovation Holdings Co., Ltd. | 1 | -90% |
| Seiko Epson Corporation | 0 | — |
| Olympus Corporation | 0 | — |
| Flodesign Sonics, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. | 0 | — |
| EchoSonic Imaging, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature, consolidating field with specific technical gaps still open.
Map claims against the matching-layer impedance ranges
US4795935A's impedance and thickness relationships still anchor citation chains; check any new matching-layer claim against that prior art before drafting.
Explore matching layer prior artTrack the decline in filing momentum by assignee
With every tracked assignee flat or declining in the latest year, watch for consolidation or licensing activity rather than fresh greenfield filing.
Run an assignee momentum searchLook outside the US and EPO filing pools
China, Japan, WIPO and Canada together hold a meaningful share of filings; a freedom-to-operate check limited to the US and Europe will miss coverage.
Check multi-jurisdiction coverageCommon questions about this landscape
The corpus of 4,124 families is led by a mix of medical-device and industrial-electronics companies, with the strongest cross-entity filing links appearing between corporate parents and their medical-systems subsidiaries, such as Toshiba and Toshiba Medical Systems. No single assignee dominates the field outright; the ranking table on this page shows the current order by family count. Recent-year filing activity across tracked leaders is flat or in decline, so today's leaders reflect accumulated portfolios more than fresh momentum.
Filing volume peaked in 2021 at 232 families and declined through a 2022 midpoint of 104, continuing lower afterward, which reads as a flat-to-declining trend rather than continued growth. The most recent one to two years understate true activity because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months. Taken together, the data suggests the field has matured past its filing peak rather than being in an early growth phase.
B06B (generating mechanical vibrations) is the largest IPC subclass at 2,775 records, well ahead of H10N solid-state devices at 1,484 and G01N material testing at 1,183. Medical and surgical use, captured under A61B, accounts for 1,173 records, showing how much of the hardware in this corpus is claimed for diagnostic or surgical applications rather than pure acoustics or audio. Semiconductor-adjacent claims under H01L, at 934, also form a substantial share.
Relative to the dense core of vibration-generation and matching-layer claims, sub-areas like PMUT array fabrication tolerances, electromechanical coupling coefficient optimisation and graded-impedance matching layers show thinner claim density in this corpus. Phased-array focused ultrasound safety limits and sonar-specific bandwidth widening are also less crowded than the surgical-generator cluster that dominates citations. These are starting points for a novelty search, not guarantees of open claim space — a formal freedom-to-operate check is still needed before filing.
US4795935A, filed by Terumo Corporation and granted in 1989, established specific acoustic-impedance and thickness relationships between a piezoelectric body, its reflector and its acoustic matching layer. Those relationships — expressed as impedance ranges and wavelength-fraction thicknesses — became a reference point that later matching-layer claims are drafted around or distinguished from. Its age relative to most of this corpus means it shows up disproportionately in citation counts, which favour older foundational filings over more recent ones.
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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.