Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Concentration is modest. the top 5 assignees hold 29.2% of all 96 records in scope, and the leading filer holds only 7 — no single company controls the core claim space.
- Filing has cooled sharply since its 2019 peak. annual filings fell from 6 in 2021 to 1 in 2024, an 83% drop, though 2025-2026 counts are still filling in as publication catches up.
- Rectifier and impedance circuitry outweighs the transducer itself. H02N and H01L classes each cover more than half of all records, while power-conversion (H02M) and grid-interface (H02J) classes sit under 11%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 records) with 2024 (1) — 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 96 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Piezoelectric energy harvesting turns ambient vibration into usable electrical power, and the patent activity in this space clusters around three problems: extracting more power from a given vibration source, tuning the harvester to resonate across a wider frequency band, and converting the harvester’s raw AC output into a stable DC supply. The 96 records in scope span filings from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, drawn from applicants ranging from large industrial names to university research offices and single-inventor filers.
The dataset is built from a targeted search across harvester and vibration-harvesting terminology combined with claim-level language on resonance tuning, power density, impedance matching, broadband operation, vibration durability and rectifier circuitry — so it captures the engineering layer of the field rather than raw materials science on piezoelectric ceramics themselves.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 96 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which technical subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend: a 2019 peak, then a fast decline
Filings peaked at 8 in 2019 and climbed as high as 6 by 2021, but fell to 1 by 2024 — an 83% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the true recent trend will only be visible in later data pulls.
Technology composition: circuit and device classes dominate
H02N (electric machines, other) appears in 62.5% of the 96 records and H01L (semiconductor devices) in 58.3%, with H10N (other solid-state devices) at 50.0% — together showing that most filings claim the transducer-plus-circuit assembly rather than a bare mechanical structure. Power-conversion (H02M, 10.4%) and grid-interface (H02J, 7.3%) classes are comparatively thin, and medical-adjacent filings under A61B sit at just 2.1%.
Shares are the percentage of the 96 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Devices with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about piezoelectric energy harvesting devices and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art and a representative filing
Flipping-Capacitor Rectifier Circuit (US20190165688A1, University of Macau, 2019)
A flipping-capacitor rectifier circuit that enhances an output power of a piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH). The flipping-capacitor rectifier circuit includes a flipping capacitor, a plurality of switches, and an active rectifier. The flipping capacitor is connected in parallel with the PEH and forms at least three reconfiguration phases by turning on one or more of the switches. The active rectifier connects with the flipping capacitor in parallel and rectifies an AC voltage of the PEH. The flipping capacitor flips a voltage across a capacitor of the PEH to enhance the output power of the PEH by extracting power from the capacitor of the PEH.Illustrates the shift in claim emphasis toward power-conditioning circuitry sitting downstream of the piezoelectric element itself, rather than the transducer structure alone.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050134149A1 | Piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting device | 92 |
| 2 | US20080074002A1 | Piezoelectric energy harvester | 89 |
| 3 | US7948153B1 | Piezoelectric energy harvester having planform-tapered interdigitated beams | 78 |
| 4 | US7649305B2 | Piezoelectric energy harvester | 61 |
| 5 | US20080174273A1 | Piezoelectric Energy Harvester | 52 |
| 6 | US20140021825A1 | Non-stationary multi-frequency vibration energy harvesting with tunable electrical impedance | 47 |
| 7 | US20150311824A1 | Self power SSHI circuit for piezoelectric energy harvester | 45 |
| 8 | WO2010151738A2 | Piezomagnetoelastic structure for broadband vibration energy harvesting | 45 |
| 9 | US20110140579A1 | Active piezoelectric energy harvester with embedded variable capacitance layer and method of manufacturing th… | 38 |
| 10 | US20120326536A1 | Vibration energy harvesting apparatus | 35 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside the corpus — treat this as a signal of influence on later design choices, not as a ranking of current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three findings that shape where a new application is likely to face prior art, and where it is not.
No single company dominates the core claims
The leading assignee holds only 7 of the 96 records in scope, and the top 5 combined account for 29.2% of all filings. That is a fragmented field compared to sectors with a dominant platform holder — a new entrant is more likely to run into a scattered set of narrow claims than a single blocking portfolio.
Recent filing activity has cooled from its peak
After peaking at 8 filings in 2019, annual activity dropped to 1 by 2024, an 83% decline across that span. This coincides with several previously active assignees showing zero filings in the most recent full year, though 2025-2026 numbers are not yet complete enough to call a definitive end to the cycle.
Circuitry and solid-state integration outweigh raw mechanics
H02N and H01L each cover more than half of the 96 records, and H10N covers exactly half — meaning most claims bundle the piezoelectric element with semiconductor or solid-state circuitry rather than treating it as a standalone mechanical harvester. Power-conversion and grid-tie classes remain comparatively sparse.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to piezoelectric energy harvesting devices, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders come from a mix of large industrials, university tech-transfer offices and government research institutes, with several co-filing relationships linking a university to a commercial or governmental partner.
A modest lead, not a dominant one
The top-ranked assignee holds 7 of the 96 records — enough to lead the field but far short of blocking it. Fifth place holds 5 records and tenth place holds 4, showing a shallow gradient rather than a steep drop-off after the leader.
University-industry pairs anchor several filings
The strongest co-assignee pair links a university with a medical-device company across 5 shared records, and a separate pair links a science institute with a government electronics ministry across 4 records — evidence that some of this technology is developed jointly rather than filed by a single owner.
Filing is concentrated in the US and India
The United States receives 40 of the 96 records and India receives 21, with WIPO (PCT) filings at 15 and Europe at 10 — South Korea and the UK each account for single-digit counts, suggesting the commercial and defensive filing centre of gravity sits firmly in US and Indian offices.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Oscilla Power Inc. | 0 | — |
| University of Kansas | 0 | — |
| EVOKE MEDICAL LLC | 0 | — |
| Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) | 0 | — |
| Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) | 0 | — |
| Board of Regents of the University of Texas System | 0 | — |
| Indian Institute of Science | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a fragmented but circuit-heavy field with a cooling filing rate — the next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate or identifying open claim space.
Map claim boundaries around the most-cited prior art
The five most-cited records anchor much of the field's foundational transducer and rectifier language; a freedom-to-operate check should start there rather than with recent filings.
Explore prior art in EurekaModel the under-claimed branches as filing targets
Grid-tie conditioning, rotational-motor integration and medical-interface harvesters all show thin coverage relative to the core cluster and may offer more open claim space.
Run a white space analysis in EurekaTrack whether the 2021-2024 decline continues
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025-2026 figures will keep updating; revisiting this trend in a future data pull will show whether the cooldown is real or an artefact of lag.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The field is fragmented rather than dominated by one company: the leading assignee holds 7 of the 96 records in scope, and the top 5 assignees combined hold 29.2% of all records. The ranked list covers 69 companies in total, including large industrials, university offices and government research institutes, so no single portfolio is likely to block a well-drafted new application. Checking the leading handful of assignees for overlapping claims is still worthwhile, but the risk is more distributed than concentrated.
Filing activity peaked at 8 records in 2019 and declined to 1 by 2024, an 83% drop over that three-year span. However, 2025 and 2026 figures are not yet complete because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the most recent two years understate real activity. It is more accurate to say the field has cooled from its 2019 peak than to say it has stopped.
Most claims combine the piezoelectric transducer with downstream circuitry rather than treating it as a standalone mechanical device: H02N (electric machines) appears in 62.5% of the 96 records, H01L (semiconductor devices) in 58.3%, and H10N (solid-state devices) in exactly half. Power-conversion and grid-interface classes are comparatively thin, at 10.4% and 7.3% respectively, and medical-adjacent claims are rare at 2.1%. This pattern reflects the search's focus on resonance tuning, impedance matching and rectifier circuitry rather than bare materials claims.
Based on IPC composition, grid-tie power conditioning, rotational or motor-integrated harvesters, spring-and-weight mechanical designs, and implantable or medical harvester interfaces all show markedly lower claim density than the core transducer-and-rectifier cluster. These branches are not empty, but they carry a fraction of the filings that the dominant classes do. A new application targeting one of these areas is less likely to run into a dense thicket of overlapping prior art.
The United States leads with 40 of the 96 records, followed by India with 21. WIPO PCT filings account for 15 records and the European Patent Office for 10, while South Korea and the United Kingdom each register single-digit counts. This distribution suggests that applicants pursuing broad protection in this field should prioritise US and Indian filing strategy, with PCT as a common route into wider jurisdictions.
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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.