Piezoelectric Material Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filings peaked in 2017 at 69 and have declined since, with the midpoint year (2022, 36 filings) already below half the peak — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- H10N and H01L together anchor the field, with 761 and 524 records respectively, while C23C coating routes and G02F optical-modulation overlaps sit at 34 and 32 — a fraction of the core volume.
- The United States receives more than double the filings of China or the EPO, 378 versus 147 and 144, meaning defensive strategy in this field is disproportionately a US-prosecution problem.
Filing growth compares 2021 (52 records) with 2024 (36) — 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 882 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
A field built on thin-film deposition and bulk ceramic claims
Piezoelectric material patenting sits at the intersection of ceramics processing and solid-state device engineering. The search corpus spans 882 patent families filed between 2015 and 2026, concentrated around lead-free piezoceramic compositions, PZT thin films, single-crystal piezoelectric substrates and the coefficient-tuning methods that make them usable in resonators, actuators and print heads. The IPC composition confirms this: H10N (solid-state devices) and H01L (semiconductor devices) dominate, with C04B (ceramics) and H03H (impedance networks/filters) forming a substantial secondary cluster tied to RF filter and resonator applications.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 and has trended down since, a pattern consistent with a technology whose core composition and deposition claims were staked out early, leaving later filers to work incremental dopant, orientation and electrode-structure variations. Because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, the most recent one or two years in the trend will read lower than actual filing activity — treat the tail of the chart as provisional, not as a real drop-off.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 882-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those filings distribute across IPC subclasses.
A field past its filing peak
Annual filings ran from 69 in 2017 down to single digits by 2026, with the 2022 midpoint at 36 — a clear downward slope rather than a plateau, though the final one to two years will revise upward as publications catch up.
Solid-state devices and semiconductor overlap dominate
H10N (761 records) and H01L (524) carry the bulk of the corpus; C04B ceramics (244) and H03H filters (144) form the next tier, while B41J print heads (65), H02N machines (53), C23C coatings (34) and G02F optics (32) mark smaller, more specialised branches.
Shares are the percentage of the 882 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Piezoelectric Material Technology Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about piezoelectric material technology landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records anchor the technical baseline
EP3220430A1 — Piezoelectric thin-film element (PZT, chemical solution deposition)
The filing describes forming a bulk PZT thin-film layer from three separate solutions, each with a different Zr/Ti content and at least one carrying excess lead, so that the resulting bulk layer has a substantially uniform lead content and Zr/(Zr+Ti) ratio despite being built from compositionally distinct deposition steps.Filed by Xaar Technology Limited, published 2017-09-20.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110278993A1 | Method for manufacturing composite piezoelectric substrate and piezoelectric device | 265 |
| 2 | US20140132117A1 | Method of fabricating rare-earth doped piezoelectric material with various amounts of dopants and a selected … | 168 |
| 3 | US20140125203A1 | Bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator structure having an electrode with a cantilevered portion and a piezoelect… | 124 |
| 4 | US6140746A | Piezoelectric thin film, method for producing the same, and ink jet recording head using the thin film | 122 |
| 5 | US20180054176A1 | Piezoelectric acoustic resonator manufactured with piezoelectric thin film transfer process | 115 |
| 6 | US20160023245A1 | Portable electronic device using a tactile vibrator | 99 |
| 7 | US7109642B2 | Composite piezoelectric apparatus and method | 87 |
| 8 | US5334903A | Composite piezoelectrics utilizing a negative Poisson ratio polymer | 84 |
| 9 | US7459836B2 | Composite piezoelectric apparatus and method | 83 |
| 10 | US5900274A | Controlled composition and crystallographic changes in forming functionally gradient piezoelectric transducers | 83 |
Citation counts are drawn from a searched corpus and favour older filings; read them as markers of technical influence, not of current commercial weight.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say about where this field stands
Reading the filing trend, IPC spread and receiving-office split together points to a technology whose foundational claims are largely staked, with remaining activity concentrated in device integration rather than new base compositions.
Peak filing is behind this field
Annual filings fell from a 2017 peak of 69 to single digits by the most recent year, with the 2022 midpoint already at half the peak. Even allowing for publication lag understating the final years, the multi-year decline is a real signal that core composition and process claims are largely settled.
Device integration outweighs pure ceramics work
H10N solid-state device claims outnumber C04B ceramics claims by more than three to one, indicating most current patenting effort goes into how piezoelectric material is integrated into resonators and devices rather than into new bulk ceramic compositions.
US prosecution carries disproportionate weight
United States filings more than double those at the China National IP Administration or the EPO. Any freedom-to-operate review that skips US prosecution history is working with an incomplete picture of this field.
Co-filing is limited and mostly bilateral
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, and the strongest pairs share at most seven families. Piezoelectric material patenting in this dataset is largely a single-assignee activity rather than a joint-venture-driven one.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to piezoelectric material technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where recent momentum has gone quiet
The assignee ranking is dominated by device manufacturers and a handful of research institutions, but recent-year filing activity has cooled even among the most active historical filers.
Even top filers show no latest-year activity
Several of the most active historical assignees in this dataset — spanning device makers and a university research fund — show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Combined with the overall filing decline, this suggests the leaders are consolidating existing claims rather than staking new ground.
Partnerships are narrow and specific
Where co-filing exists, it tends to pair a technology developer with a specialist partner rather than forming broad consortia. The strongest pairs top out at seven shared families, a small fraction of the total corpus.
Filing strategy skews toward US and PCT routes
The receiving-office split shows US filings well ahead of China and Europe, with WIPO PCT applications forming a meaningful secondary channel. Assignees serious about this space are filing multi-jurisdictionally rather than relying on a single home office.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Xaar Technology Limited | 0 | — |
| Akoustis, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | 0 | — |
| Penn State Research Foundation | 0 | — |
| E Ink California, LLC | 0 | — |
| SABIC Global Technologies B.V. | 0 | — |
| Skyworks Solutions, Inc. | 0 | — |
Turning this landscape into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision
The trend and assignee data point to where claim space is dense and where it has gone quiet — the next step is testing a specific composition, dopant or integration approach against the full claim set.
Check freedom to operate against the cited baseline
The most-cited records in this corpus, including the bulk acoustic wave and thin-film transfer filings, define the technical baseline most later claims build on. Any new filing in resonator or thin-film integration should be checked against these before drafting.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaProbe the under-claimed sub-areas directly
Coating deposition and optical-modulation overlaps show materially lower filing density than the core device classes. That gap is either genuine white space or an artefact of classification — worth confirming before committing R&D spend.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack assignees with stalled recent filings
Several leading historical filers show no latest-year activity. Whether that reflects a shift to trade secrecy, a pivot to adjacent technology, or genuine claim exhaustion changes the competitive read substantially.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaCommon questions about piezoelectric material patents
The dataset's assignee ranking is led by a mix of device manufacturers, resonator specialists and research institutions rather than a single dominant holder. Several of the top-ranked assignees by cumulative filings show zero activity in the most recent tracked year, which suggests the leaderboard reflects historical claim-staking more than current momentum. Anyone assessing competitive risk should weight recent filings, not just total counts, since the field's overall filing rate has been falling since 2017.
No — filings peaked in 2017 at 69 and had fallen to single digits by 2026, with the 2022 midpoint already at 36. Some of that apparent decline in the final years is an artefact of publication lag, since patent applications typically publish about eighteen months after filing. Even accounting for that lag, the multi-year downward trend from the 2017 peak is a genuine signal that core composition and processing claims in this space are largely established.
Both are search terms within this corpus rather than separate technology clusters in the classification data, but the IPC split gives a proxy: C04B (ceramics, 244 records) captures much of the bulk-ceramic and lead-free composition work, while H10N and H01L (761 and 524 records) capture thin-film and device-integration claims. Lead-free piezoceramics tend to compete on composition and sintering method, whereas PZT thin-film claims more often cover deposition process and layer uniformity, as seen in the featured EP3220430A1 filing.
The IPC composition shows C23C (coating and surface deposition, 34 records) and G02F (optical modulation, 32 records) sitting far below the core H10N and H01L device classes, which suggests these adjacent integration routes are comparatively under-claimed. Single-crystal substrate bonding and print-head actuator geometry also show thinner filing density than the resonator-focused core. These are reasonable starting points for a novelty search, though thin filing density in a classification code can also mean an application is simply rare, not necessarily open.
EP3220430A1 covers a specific method — building a bulk PZT thin-film layer from three solutions with differing Zr/Ti ratios and at least one with excess lead, to reach uniform composition in the finished layer. It does not claim PZT thin films generally, so work using a single-solution deposition, a different doping approach, or a different route to compositional uniformity would sit outside its literal claim scope. A freedom-to-operate opinion should still check the full claim set and prosecution history rather than relying on the abstract alone.
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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.