PMUT Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- One filer holds 41 of 139 records, and the top five together account for 71.2% of everything in scope — this field is unusually concentrated at the top.
- Filing has plateaued, not grown, with 2021 and 2024 both at 9 filings a year and a peak of 18 in 2023 — the flat 0% three-year span is a real signal, not a data gap.
- Diagnostic imaging classes dominate the claim space, with A61B present in 26.6% of records alongside the core H10N and B06B transducer classes, showing where PMUT patenting is actually headed.
Filing growth compares 2021 (9 records) with 2024 (9) — 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 139 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this dataset covers
Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) sit at the intersection of MEMS fabrication, piezoelectric materials and acoustic sensing. This landscape covers 139 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search targeting acoustic pressure output, membrane stress, bandwidth, crosstalk, CMOS integration and fabrication yield — the technical levers that separate a working PMUT array from one that cannot ship. The scope is deliberately narrow: it favours records that argue about performance and manufacturability rather than every document that merely mentions the acronym.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity. Family-level counts, used throughout this ranking, are the fairer unit for comparing organisations, since they neutralise continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates that inflate raw document counts.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 139 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A field that plateaued rather than kept climbing
Annual filings rose from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 18 in 2023, but the three-year span from 2021 to 2024 — the last year that can be read as complete — is flat at 9 filings in both years, a 0% change. Read the 2025-2026 tail as incomplete, not as a decline.
Transducer classes dominate, but diagnostics is close behind
H10N (other electric solid-state devices) and B06B (generating mechanical vibrations) each cover more than half of all 139 records, confirming this is fundamentally a MEMS-and-piezo-materials field. A61B (diagnosis and surgery) reaches 26.6% of records, well ahead of general material testing under G01N at 14.4%, showing medical imaging as the leading application pull rather than a side use case.
Shares are the percentage of the 139 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings build on
Variable thickness diaphragm for a wideband robust PMUT
A diaphragm for a piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) is presented having resonance frequency and bandwidth characteristics which are decoupled from one another into independent variables. Portions of at least the piezoelectric material layer and backside electrode layer are removed in a selected pattern to form structures, such as ribs, in the diaphragm which retains stiffness while reducing overall mass. The patterned structure can be formed by additive, or subtractive, fabrication processes.Filed by The Regents of the University of California, granted 2023-10-24 as US11800804B2.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050146247A1 | Curved micromachined ultrasonic transducer arrays and related methods of manufacture | 149 |
| 2 | US7449821B2 | Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer with air-backed cavities | 124 |
| 3 | US20170021391A1 | Micromachined ultrasonic transducers with a slotted membrane structure | 106 |
| 4 | US20060238067A1 | Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer with air-backed cavities | 104 |
| 5 | US20130294201A1 | Ultra wide bandwidth transducer with dual electrode | 101 |
| 6 | US20130293065A1 | Ultra wide bandwidth piezoelectric transducer arrays | 95 |
| 7 | US20130294202A1 | Multi-frequency ultra wide bandwidth transducer | 93 |
| 8 | WO2015131083A1 | Variable thickness diaphragm for a wideband robust piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) | 90 |
| 9 | US7285897B2 | Curved micromachined ultrasonic transducer arrays and related methods of manufacture | 78 |
| 10 | US20150265245A1 | pMUT ARRAY FOR ULTRASONIC IMAGING, AND RELATED APPARATUSES, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS | 60 |
Citation counts reflect a searched corpus and skew toward older records; treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns worth acting on before drafting the next PMUT claim set.
The claim space near the core is largely occupied
With 99 of 139 records held by five organisations, new entrants filing on baseline PMUT structure — cavity geometry, basic piezo stack, air-backed diaphragm — are filing into dense prior art. Differentiated value now sits in specific performance claims: bandwidth decoupling, crosstalk suppression, CMOS co-integration.
Growth has flattened, not collapsed
The peak year so far is 2023 at 18 filings, but the last two complete years bookend at the same level. That reads as a maturing core technology rather than a shrinking one — worth distinguishing before assuming the field is cooling.
Medical imaging is pulling PMUT filings, not just MEMS labs
A61B classification on over a quarter of records, alongside G01N at 14.4%, indicates diagnostic and sensing applications are now a primary driver of new filings rather than a downstream use case discovered after the core transducer patents were filed.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and who is not filing much anymore
The ranked list covers 23 companies — the full set the data endpoint returns, not a top-50 or top-100 cut. One organisation leads by a wide margin; most of the rest hold single-digit counts.
One filer sets the pace by a wide margin
The top-ranked assignee holds 41 of 139 records in scope, well ahead of fifth place at 12. That gap suggests a single organisation has built a broad portfolio across the core PMUT structure rather than one narrow pocket of claims.
A second tier holds meaningful but narrower positions
Fifth place sits at 12 records, and tenth place drops to 2 — the field thins out quickly past the top five, who together already cover 71.2% of all 139 records.
Co-filing is rare in this field
Only two co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, each linked by two shared filings. Most organisations here file independently rather than through joint ventures or research consortia, which matters when assessing freedom-to-operate risk from a single counterparty.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Scientific International Ltd. | 1 | — |
| FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Chirp Microsystems, Inc. | 0 | — |
| SOUNDCATH INC | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | — |
| Research Triangle Institute | 0 | — |
| HAJATI ARMAN | 0 | — |
| STMicroelectronics S.r.l. | 0 | — |
Where to take this
This landscape identifies where claim density sits and where it thins out. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate position needs a closer read of the specific claims involved.
Map claims against the top assignees' portfolios
The top five hold 71.2% of records in scope; before drafting near the core transducer structure, check what those specific portfolios claim at the independent-claim level.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches
Crosstalk suppression and CMOS co-integration show lower filing density than the core structural classes — a first-filer advantage may still be available there.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions on PMUT patents
One organisation leads the ranked list with 41 of the 139 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 12. The top five assignees together account for 99 records, or 71.2% of everything in scope, which makes this a concentrated field rather than one with many evenly matched competitors. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should treat that leader's portfolio as the first thing to check against any new PMUT filing near the core transducer structure.
Filing activity peaked so far in 2023 at 18 records, but the last two years that can be read as complete, 2021 and 2024, both sit at 9 filings — a flat 0% change over that span. That pattern reads as a technology settling into a steady filing rate rather than one in decline, though the 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Treat any apparent drop-off in the most recent year as a data artefact, not a real slowdown.
The two largest IPC subclasses are H10N, covering other electric solid-state devices, at 59.7% of the 139 records in scope, and B06B, covering generating mechanical vibrations, at 56.8%. H01L (semiconductor devices) appears in 37.4% of records, reflecting the CMOS and MEMS fabrication side of the technology. A61B (diagnosis and surgery) reaches 26.6%, showing medical imaging is a major application pull rather than an incidental use.
US11800804B2, owned by The Regents of the University of California and granted 2023-10-24, covers a PMUT diaphragm design that decouples resonance frequency from bandwidth by removing selected portions of the piezoelectric and backside electrode layers to form rib-like structures. This retains diaphragm stiffness while cutting mass, which lets bandwidth be tuned somewhat independently of resonant frequency. Anyone designing a diaphragm structure aimed at wideband performance should read its claims closely before finalising a comparable geometry.
Relative to the dominant transducer and semiconductor classes, areas like crosstalk suppression between array elements, CMOS-integrated readout co-fabrication and fabrication yield control show lower filing density in this dataset. That does not mean these areas are unclaimed, but the concentration of filings sits more heavily on core structural and material claims than on these system-level and manufacturing-process angles. A first mover with a specific, well-supported claim in one of these narrower branches may face less crowded prior art than a filing on baseline transducer geometry.
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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.