Piezoelectric Material Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 266 records and has declined since with the 2022 midpoint at 185 — a pattern of flat-to-declining activity rather than a growth curve, even accounting for publication lag.
- The most-cited prior art is decades old the top-cited record, US8932686B2 on composite piezoelectric substrates, carries 269 citations, and several of the highest-cited documents date to the 1990s and 2000s — signalling a mature, well-picked-over core.
- Momentum has reversed across the historical leaders assignees including Canon, Seiko Epson, NGK Insulators and Murata each show 0 filings in the latest year, a -100% YoY drop, while newer entrants file in single digits.
Filing growth compares 2021 (199 records) with 2024 (98) — 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 4,430 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the piezoelectric material patent record shows
The dataset covers 4,430 patent families filed between 2015 and 2026 across compositions such as potassium sodium niobate, AlScN films and textured piezoceramics, and processes spanning ceramics fabrication and thin-film deposition. Filing activity is concentrated in H10N (other electric solid-state devices, 4,033 records) and H01L (semiconductor devices, 2,838), with a secondary cluster in C04B ceramics and refractories (1,203) — indicating that most recent claim activity sits at the device-integration layer rather than in raw material composition alone.
Receiving-office data shows the United States leading with 1,334 filings, ahead of Japan (754), China (651), the EPO (588), WIPO/PCT (345) and South Korea (304). That spread across five major offices, rather than concentration in one jurisdiction, suggests applicants have historically pursued parallel protection in the US, Japan and Europe for core piezoelectric material claims.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 4,430-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses.
A peak in 2017, then a decline
Filings ran from 266 in 2017 down through a 2022 midpoint of 185 to just 5 in the most recent (partial) year. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years will always understate true activity — but the multi-year decline from the 2017 peak through the 2022 midpoint predates that lag effect and reflects a real cooling in new filing.
Device integration outweighs raw material claims
H10N and H01L dominate the IPC mix, together outnumbering the C04B ceramics subclass by a wide margin. B41J (printers) and B06B (mechanical vibration generation) appear as smaller but distinct application clusters, pointing to inkjet actuation and sensor/transducer use cases layered on top of the core material chemistry.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,430 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Piezoelectric Material Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about piezoelectric material advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art doing the most work
US20190181330A1 — Piezoelectric material filler and composite piezoelectric material
Provided is a piezoelectric material filler including alkali niobate compound particles having a ratio (K/(Na+K)) of the number of moles of potassium to the total number of moles of sodium and potassium of 0.460 to 0.495 in terms of atoms and a ratio ((Li+Na+K)/Nb) of the total number of moles of alkali metal elements to the number of moles of niobium of 0.995 to 1.005 in terms of atoms. The present invention can provide a piezoelectric material filler having excellent piezoelectric properties, and a composite piezoelectric material including the piezoelectric material filler and a polymer matrix.Filed by Nippon Chemical Industrial Co., Ltd., published 2019-06-13.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US8932686B2 | Method for producing piezoelectric composite substrate | 269 |
| 2 | US20110278993A1 | Method for manufacturing composite piezoelectric substrate and piezoelectric device | 265 |
| 3 | JP2009010926A | Piezoelectric thin film, piezoelectric material, fabrication method of piezoelectric thin film and piezoelect… | 240 |
| 4 | JP2000313664A | Piezoelectric material composition of alkali metal- containing niobium oxide | 212 |
| 5 | US5340510A | Method for making piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite transducers | 212 |
| 6 | JP2005213376A | Polymeric piezoelectric material comprising polylactic acid based resin and inorganic compound | 211 |
| 7 | US20050185026A1 | Piezoelectric element, piezoelectric actuator, ink jet recording head, ink jet printer, surface acoustic wave… | 195 |
| 8 | WO2012086441A1 | Elastic wave device and production method thereof | 192 |
| 9 | JP2011242386A | Transparent compound piezoelectric material aggregate of contact sensor and tactile sense actuator | 178 |
| 10 | US20140132117A1 | Method of fabricating rare-earth doped piezoelectric material with various amounts of dopants and a selected … | 168 |
Citation counts favour older, longer-indexed documents and should be read as a signal of influence within this corpus, not of current commercial relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Reading filing volume, citation weight and IPC spread together points to a field where the core chemistry is well established but integration claims remain active.
Volume has not recovered since 2017
The 2022 midpoint of 185 confirms this is a genuine decline rather than a lag artefact in the most recent year alone. New entrants filing today are working against a shrinking pool of active competitors, not a crowding field.
Foundational art is old and heavily cross-referenced
Several of the most-cited documents, including JP2000313664A on alkali niobium oxide compositions, date well before the coverage window starts. Anyone filing composition claims near potassium sodium niobate is filing into territory these documents already stake out.
Device integration, not raw ceramics, drives volume
H10N and H01L together dwarf the C04B ceramics subclass, meaning most recent claim activity addresses how piezoelectric material is packaged into a device rather than the material composition itself.
The historical leaders have gone quiet
Four of the assignees with the deepest filing history show zero filings in the latest year. The only movement recorded is a single filing each from Soitec and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, both at low absolute volume.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to piezoelectric material advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who has held this space, and who is still active
Filing history in piezoelectric materials is dominated by a small set of Japanese electronics and ceramics manufacturers alongside French research institutions, but recent-year activity has thinned across nearly all of them.
Canon's co-filing network was the densest in the dataset
Canon's strongest co-assignee pairs, with University of Yamanashi (45 shared filings), Fuji Chemical (32) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (28), point to a long-running joint R&D program in thin-film piezoelectric fabrication that has since gone quiet in filing terms.
Alkali niobate composition claims remain tightly specified
The representative filing from Nippon Chemical Industrial narrows potassium-to-alkali-metal ratios to specific atomic fractions, illustrating how composition claims in this space are staked out at fine compositional tolerances rather than broad chemistry.
Recent activity is thin and research-institution led
The only assignees with any latest-year filing activity are Soitec (down 50% YoY) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, both at a single filing — a sign the field's active edge has narrowed to a handful of specialist players.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Soitec | 1 | -50% |
| French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) | 1 | — |
| Canon Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Seiko Epson Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| NGK Insulators, Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | 0 | — |
| TDK Corporation | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether you are scoping freedom-to-operate, evaluating an acquisition target, or deciding where to file.
Check composition claims against the cited core
Before filing a composition claim near potassium sodium niobate ratios, run it against the highest-cited prior art in this corpus, several of which predate the coverage window and remain frequently referenced.
Explore prior art in EurekaWatch for a shift in assignee activity
With historical leaders at zero latest-year filings and only research institutions showing single-digit activity, a new filer entering now faces a thinner competitive field than the raw family count suggests.
Track assignee momentum in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
IPC density is heavily weighted toward device integration; branches like textured grain orientation control and AlScN sputtering parameters show comparatively less claim coverage and may be worth a closer freedom-to-operate check.
Map white space in EurekaCommon questions on piezoelectric material patents
The dataset shows filings falling from a peak of 266 in 2017 to a 2022 midpoint of 185, well before the most recent years where publication lag would explain a dip. This pattern is consistent with a field where core compositions such as potassium sodium niobate and AlScN films were staked out early, and the historically largest filers (Canon, Seiko Epson, NGK Insulators, Murata) have since dropped to zero filings in the latest year. It does not necessarily mean the technology is losing commercial relevance, only that new patent claims in this exact search space have slowed.
Japanese electronics and ceramics manufacturers hold the deepest historical filing records in this corpus, with Canon showing the strongest co-assignee network through joint filings with University of Yamanashi, Fuji Chemical and Tokyo Institute of Technology. However, momentum has shifted: nearly all of these historically dominant assignees show a -100% year-on-year drop in the latest year, while the only assignees with any recent activity are Soitec and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, each filing a single record.
This filing from Nippon Chemical Industrial claims a piezoelectric material filler made of alkali niobate compound particles, with the potassium-to-total-alkali-metal ratio specified between 0.460 and 0.495 and the total alkali-metal-to-niobium ratio between 0.995 and 1.005, combined into a composite with a polymer matrix. It is a composition claim narrowed to specific atomic ratios rather than a broad chemistry claim, which limits its blocking effect to filler materials falling within those tolerances. Anyone working outside that stoichiometric window on a composite piezoelectric filler would likely sit outside its literal scope, though a full freedom-to-operate review should check dependent claims and prosecution history directly.
IPC data shows filing heavily concentrated in device-integration subclasses H10N and H01L, with the C04B ceramics subclass a distant third and even smaller clusters in mechanical vibration generation (B06B) and coating processes (C23C). This leaves comparatively thinner claim density around textured piezoceramic grain orientation control, AlScN sputtering process parameters, and composite filler-to-polymer ratio optimisation — areas that show up in the composition data but are not the volume drivers in the IPC mix. These are starting points for a scoping search, not a guarantee of open space, since low volume in a public search string can also reflect narrower commercial interest.
The two most-cited records are US8932686B2 on producing a piezoelectric composite substrate (269 citations) and US20110278993A1 on manufacturing a composite piezoelectric substrate and device (265 citations), followed closely by JP2009010926A on piezoelectric thin films (240) and two older records, JP2000313664A and US5340510A, both at 212. Because citation counts accumulate over time, older documents are structurally favoured in this kind of count, so treat these as markers of foundational influence within the searched corpus rather than as a ranking of current technical importance.
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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.