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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/post-cmp-cleaning-chemistry-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Wafer CleaningPost CMP Cleaning Chemistry Patents: Filing Trends and Claim Concentration
- 41.7% of all 583 records sit with just five assignees, so most post-CMP cleaning claim space is already staked by a small group.
- Filings peaked in 2021 at 34 and fell 32% to 23 by 2024, the last year the data treats as complete.
- H01L and C11D together anchor most filings at 63.1% and 43.4% of records respectively, but C23G metal-surface cleaning sits at just 12.3%.
583
Published Records
42%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-32%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (34 records) with 2024 (23) — 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 583 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Post-CMP cleaning chemistry sits at the intersection of surface chemistry and semiconductor manufacturing: formulations and brush-scrubbing processes designed to strip slurry residue, inhibit galvanic corrosion at exposed copper and cobalt features, and control surfactant adsorption without reopening dishing defects. This landscape covers 583 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that reference post-CMP cleaning, brush scrubbing or PVA brush cleaning alongside at least one of slurry residue, galvanic corrosion, surfactant adsorption, copper dishing, defect inspection or chelating agent claims.
The dataset spans chemical formulation claims and process/apparatus claims together, since cleaning chemistry patents routinely bundle a composition claim with a scrubbing or rinse method. Family-level counts, rather than raw document counts, are used throughout so continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates do not inflate any single assignee's position.
Filing activity and technology mix, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Post CMP Cleaning Chemistry covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 583 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below add up to well over 100% of the record total.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 10 in 2017 to a peak of 34 in 2021, then declined to 23 by 2024, a 32% drop across that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publication catches up with filing, so the apparent tail-off should not be read as the field cooling.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H01L (semiconductor devices) touches 63.1% of records and C11D (detergents and cleaning compositions) touches 43.4%, confirming that most filings pair a device-level claim with a formulation claim. C09K materials and H10P sit near 19-20% each, while B08B general cleaning, C09G polishing compositions, G03F photolithography and C23G metal-surface cleaning each cover 12-16% of records — narrower bands that separate specialist filers from the generalists at the top of the ranking.
Shares are the percentage of the 583 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Post CMP Cleaning Chemistry covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Most-cited records and a representative filing
Representative filing
Cleaning Composition for Post Chemical Mechanical Planarization And Method Of Using The Same (US20230106132A1)
VIBRANTZ CORPORATION
The present invention provides a cleaning composition for post CMP cleaning and method for post CMP cleaning microelectronic device. The cleaning composition according to the invention includes at least one chelating agent, at least one organic solvent, at least one polycarboxylic acid, at least one basic pH adjustor, at least one metal anticorrosive agent, and water. The TMAH-free cleaning composition according to the invention provides improved cleaning efficiency and electrochemical compatibility with both cobalt and copper materials.Filed by Vibrantz Corporation, published 2023-04-06. Notable for combining a TMAH-free base with simultaneous cobalt and copper compatibility, a combination several older chelating-agent claims do not address directly.
View full filingHighest-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6117783A | Chemical mechanical polishing composition and process | 271 |
| 2 | US6030932A | Cleaning composition and method for removing residues | 169 |
| 3 | US6492308B1 | Post chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) cleaning composition | 153 |
| 4 | US6313039B1 | Chemical mechanical polishing composition and process | 148 |
| 5 | US6068879A | Use of corrosion inhibiting compounds to inhibit corrosion of metal plugs in chemical-mechanical polishing | 144 |
| 6 | US20090133716A1 | Methods of post chemical mechanical polishing and wafer cleaning using amidoxime compositions | 137 |
| 7 | US20040134873A1 | Abrasive-free chemical mechanical polishing composition and polishing process containing same | 119 |
| 8 | US5662769A | Chemical solutions for removing metal-compound contaminants from wafers after CMP and the method of wafer cle… | 114 |
| 9 | US6152148A | Method for cleaning semiconductor wafers containing dielectric films | 102 |
| 10 | US5861066A | Method and apparatus for cleaning edges of contaminated substrates | 102 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat this table as a map of influence on the field's foundational chemistry, not a ranking of current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Post CMP Cleaning Chemistry covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data means for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are read against each other: where claim density is defensive rather than innovative, where the trend line is misleading, and where the technology mix signals an underused branch.
Concentration
41.7% of 583 records
held by top 5 assignees
The top of the field is settled, not open
Five assignees hold 41.7% of all 583 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 61.9%. A newcomer filing a broad chelating-agent or corrosion-inhibitor composition claim is filing directly into occupied space; freedom to operate analysis matters more here than novelty search alone.
Source: assignee ranking, 583 records
Momentum
-32% (2021 → 2024)
filings, peak to latest complete year
Read the recent decline against the publication lag, not against it
Filings fell from a 2021 peak of 34 to 23 in 2024. That is a real three-year contraction, but 2025 and 2026 counts are still filling in, since publication lags filing by roughly 18 months. Do not treat the sparse 2025-2026 numbers as continued decline.
Source: filing trend, 2017-2026
Technology mix
12.3% of 583 records
carry C23G metal-surface cleaning
Metal-surface cleaning claims are thin relative to device claims
H01L semiconductor-device claims appear in 63.1% of records, but C23G metal-surface cleaning of the copper and cobalt features those devices expose sits at just 12.3%. That gap between device-level and metal-surface-level claiming is where corrosion-inhibitor chemistry specific to dual-metal interconnects remains comparatively under-filed.
Source: IPC composition, 583 records
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to post cmp cleaning chemistry, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Post CMP Cleaning Chemistry covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who holds the claim space, and where it is thinning
The ranked leaders show a small group of chemical suppliers and equipment makers holding the bulk of the filings, with recent-year activity thinning even among some of the largest holders.
Leader
79 records
top-ranked assignee
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 79 records, more than double the fifth-place holder's 34. That gap suggests a deliberate, sustained filing programme rather than opportunistic patenting around one product cycle.
Source: assignee ranking
Mid-field
34 → 16 records
fifth to tenth place
A steep drop-off after the top five
Record counts fall from 34 at fifth place to 16 at tenth, and the ranking runs to 100 companies in total. Most of that ranking is a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants rather than sustained programmes.
Source: assignee ranking, 100 companies
Recent activity
-100% YoY
for two prior top-10 filers
Some established filers have gone quiet in the latest year
Two assignees that appear among the top holders show zero filings in the latest year, a -100% year-on-year change, while another shows a -50% drop to 2 filings. This does not necessarily mean withdrawal from the space; it may reflect the publication lag rather than a strategic pullback.
Source: recent-year momentum by assignee
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| FUJIFILM Electronic Materials U.S.A., Inc. | 2 | -50% |
| FUJIFILM Corporation | 2 | — |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 1 | — |
| Entegris, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Advanced Technology Materials, Inc. | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | -100% |
| Lam Research Corporation | 0 | — |
| Micell Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Post CMP Cleaning Chemistry covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to a field with a settled top tier and a thinner set of specialist branches. Two directions follow from that.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top holders
With 61.9% of records held by ten assignees, any new formulation or process claim should be checked against that group's granted claims before drafting, not just against the most-cited historical patents.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaDraft into the under-claimed branches
Dual-metal corrosion inhibition and TMAH-free chelating chemistry show thinner filing density than the device-level claims around them, making them a more defensible place to file a first claim.
Explore white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Post CMP Cleaning Chemistry covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on post-CMP cleaning chemistry patents
One assignee leads the ranked field with 79 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 34. The top five assignees combined hold 41.7% of all 583 records in scope, and the top ten hold 61.9%. This concentration means a new entrant should expect to file around, rather than into, the core composition claims those leaders already hold.
Filings rose from 10 in 2017 to a peak of 34 in 2021, then fell to 23 by 2024, a 32% decline over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the very recent 2025-2026 counts are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence the field is continuing to shrink. 2024 is the most recent year in this dataset that can be treated as a complete count.
H01L semiconductor-device claims appear in 63.1% of the 583 records, and C11D detergent and cleaning-composition claims appear in 43.4%, meaning most filings pair a device-level claim with a chemical formulation claim. C09K materials and H10P classifications each cover roughly 19-20% of records. Narrower bands like C09G polishing compositions, G03F photolithography and C23G metal-surface cleaning each sit in the 12-16% range, marking more specialised filing activity.
The gap between H01L device-level claiming (63.1% of records) and C23G metal-surface cleaning (12.3%) suggests corrosion-inhibitor chemistry specific to exposed copper and cobalt features is comparatively under-filed relative to the devices it protects. TMAH-free chelating formulations and defect-inspection integration with the cleaning step also show thinner coverage than the core slurry-residue and corrosion-inhibitor claims. These branches are worth checking against the full claim set before assuming they are truly open, since a landscape search surfaces density, not certainty of freedom to operate.
US20230106132A1, filed by Vibrantz Corporation and published 2023-04-06, claims a TMAH-free post-CMP cleaning composition combining a chelating agent, organic solvent, polycarboxylic acid, basic pH adjustor and metal anticorrosive agent, formulated for compatibility with both cobalt and copper. It is useful as a representative filing because it shows how a single modern claim bundles several older individually-claimed elements — chelation, corrosion inhibition, pH control — into one composition. Anyone drafting a similar dual-metal-compatible formulation should review its claim scope closely before finalising ingredient ratios.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Post CMP Cleaning Chemistry covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.