Piezoelectric MEMS Microphone Patents: Who Leads, Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2022 at 28 records, then fell sharply — the tracked growth figure shows 2021's 5 filings dropping to just 1 by 2024, an 80% decline over that span.
- One assignee leads with 27 records, but the ranking drops to 6 by fifth place and 2 by tenth — concentration at the very top with a long tail below it.
- H04R and B81B dominate the classification mix, at 94.1% and 46.5% of the 101 records respectively, while G10L (speech/audio analysis) appears in only 2% — a thin signal-processing layer sitting on top of a dense transducer-hardware base.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 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.
What this landscape covers
This review covers 101 published patent records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026 that describe piezoelectric MEMS microphones, aluminium-nitride diaphragm designs, and capacitive-piezoelectric hybrid transducers, with claims that specifically address signal handling, self-noise floor, sensitivity, dust and water immunity, acoustic overload point, or signal fusion. The scope is drawn from title/abstract search terms combined with claim-level language on these performance attributes, so it favours documents that treat noise floor and environmental robustness as inventive subject matter rather than incidental mentions.
Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent year in the trend below reads lower than it will eventually settle once pending applications publish.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 101-record set: filings by year, and the IPC subclasses those records fall under. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, the composition shares below add up to more than 100% of the record total — that is expected and reflects genuine overlap between MEMS structure claims and transducer claims.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 4 in 2017 to a peak of 28 in 2022, then declined; the tracked growth window shows 2021's 5 filings falling to 1 by 2024, an 80% drop. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent two years understate real activity and should not be read as a slowdown on their own.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H04R (loudspeakers and audio transducers) appears in 94.1% of the 101 records and B81B (MEMS microstructures) in 46.5%, confirming this is fundamentally a transducer-hardware corpus. H10N (other solid-state devices) sits close behind at 44.6%, while G10L (speech and audio analysis/synthesis) appears in only 2.0% — signal-fusion and processing claims are a minority layer on top of the hardware base.
Shares are the percentage of the 101 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Piezoelectric MEMS Microphones with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about piezoelectric mems microphones and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Piezoelectric MEMS microphone chip and piezoelectric MEMS microphone (SG10202301457WA)
The filing discloses a piezoelectric MEMS microphone chip built from a substrate frame carrying multiple sound-receiving beams, each combining a connecting beam and a cantilever beam staggered around a circumference. The beams anchor at the geometric center, forming a diaphragm structure distinct from single-cantilever or plate designs used in earlier piezoelectric microphone art.Filed by Wuhan MEMSonics Technologies Co., Ltd., dated 2023-07-28.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20150350792A1 | Piezoelectric MEMS microphone | 93 |
| 2 | JP2018137297A | Piezoelectric element | 78 |
| 3 | US20100254547A1 | Piezoelectric MEMS microphone | 71 |
| 4 | US20140339657A1 | Piezoelectric MEMS microphone | 53 |
| 5 | US8896184B2 | Piezoelectric MEMS microphone | 50 |
| 6 | US8531088B2 | Piezoelectric MEMS microphone | 44 |
| 7 | US20200148532A1 | Piezoelectric MEMS microphone | 32 |
| 8 | US20210051413A1 | Piezoelectric MEMS microphone | 30 |
| 9 | CN110545511A | 压电式MEMS麦克风 | 29 |
| 10 | US10170685B2 | Piezoelectric MEMS microphone | 26 |
Citation counts favour older documents simply by virtue of longer exposure inside the corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on the field's early architecture, not of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the filing trend, the assignee ranking and the IPC mix are read together.
Activity crested in 2022 and has not rebounded
The peak year of 28 filings in 2022 was followed by a sharp decline; the tracked growth figure of -80% from 2021 to 2024 confirms this is a real contraction in complete-year data, not an artefact of publication lag. New entrants should expect fewer active competitors filing fresh claims than during 2020-2022.
One clear leader, then a fast drop-off
The leading assignee holds 27 records against a fifth-place figure of 6 and a tenth-place figure of 2, across 21 ranked companies. That shape points to one dominant portfolio holder surrounded by a long tail of smaller filers rather than several evenly matched competitors.
Hardware claims dominate; signal-processing claims are scarce
H04R and B81B together describe the overwhelming majority of records, while G10L barely registers. Claim space around the acoustic transducer and MEMS structure is dense; the software/signal-fusion layer that turns raw transducer output into noise-floor or water-immunity performance is comparatively open.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to piezoelectric mems microphones, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders span established RF/audio component makers, university-affiliated inventors and China-based MEMS specialists. Momentum in the most recent tracked year is flat to negative across the names with visible recent activity, consistent with the broader post-2022 decline in complete-year filings.
A single assignee holds the largest share of ranked records
The top-ranked company's 27 records set it well apart from the rest of the field, which drops to 6 at fifth place and 2 by tenth. That gap suggests an entrenched core portfolio around piezoelectric diaphragm and packaging claims that later entrants have had to file around.
University research feeds directly into commercial filings
The strongest co-assignee pairing in this dataset links a university engineering department with a named inventor pair, each appearing together on 4 records — evidence that foundational MEMS diaphragm research is being co-owned and commercialised rather than published and left open.
Recent-year activity has gone flat across most named assignees
Among assignees with visible recent-year data, year-over-year change ranges from flat to a full drop-off, with no assignee showing renewed growth in the latest tracked year. This matches the broader post-2022 contraction rather than indicating any single company's retreat.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Skyworks Global Pte. Ltd. | 1 | 0% |
| Skyworks Solutions, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| AAC Acoustic Technologies (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of Michigan | 0 | — |
| Vesper Technologies Inc. | 0 | — |
| AAC Technologies (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Wuhan MEMSonics Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| New Japan Radio Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking or identifying a filing gap.
Map claims against the leader's 27-record portfolio
Before drafting new diaphragm or packaging claims, check them against the leading assignee's filings specifically, since that portfolio is large enough to create real freedom-to-operate risk around core piezoelectric MEMS structures.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaScope the signal-fusion and filtering gap
With G10L and H03H each appearing in only a small share of the 101 records, a claim combining piezoelectric transducer output with signal-fusion or filtering logic may face thinner prior art than a pure hardware claim.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack whether filing activity resumes past 2024
Because 2025-2026 data is still incomplete, watch the next publication cycle before concluding the field has permanently slowed; the 18-month lag means real 2025 filing volume will not be visible until later.
Monitor filing trends in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Among the 21 companies in this ranking, one assignee leads clearly with 27 records, compared with 6 at fifth place and 2 at tenth. That gap indicates a concentrated core portfolio rather than several evenly matched competitors. It does not mean that company controls every viable design path, since the ranking reflects filing volume, not claim breadth or grant status.
Filing peaked at 28 records in 2022 and has declined since, with the tracked growth figure showing an 80% drop from 5 filings in 2021 to 1 in 2024. 2024 is the most recent year with reasonably complete data. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not yet be read as confirmation of a continued decline.
H04R, the audio transducer classification, appears in 94.1% of the 101 records in scope, and B81B, covering MEMS microstructures, appears in 46.5%. H10N (other solid-state devices) is close behind at 44.6%. Classes tied to downstream signal processing, such as G10L, appear far less often, at just 2.0%, indicating the bulk of inventive activity sits in transducer hardware rather than software layers.
The IPC composition suggests signal-fusion, filtering and dust/water-ingress-specific claims are comparatively under-represented relative to core diaphragm and MEMS structural claims. G10L and H03H each cover only a small share of the 101 records. A first claim combining a known piezoelectric transducer structure with a novel signal-fusion or ingress-protection mechanism may encounter thinner prior art than a purely structural diaphragm claim.
SG10202301457WA, filed by Wuhan MEMSonics, discloses a piezoelectric MEMS microphone chip using multiple staggered sound-receiving beams, each with a connecting beam and cantilever beam, anchored at a shared geometric center. This is a specific multi-beam diaphragm geometry rather than a single-cantilever or plate design. It would primarily constrain designs using that same staggered multi-beam arrangement; single-cantilever, plate-type, or differently anchored diaphragm geometries would need their own freedom-to-operate review rather than assuming this filing controls the whole diaphragm design space.
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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.