Power Electronics Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing is not dominated by a handful of firms. the top 5 assignees together hold only 13.0% of the 52,988 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 19.5% — a long tail of active filers sits below them.
- Power conversion and grid supply lead the technology mix. H02J (power supply & grid) and H02M (power conversion) each cover roughly 8-9% of records, well ahead of motor control, semiconductor devices and measurement classes.
- Filing volume has eased off its 2022 peak. activity rose to 1,428 records in 2022 before easing to 1,071 by 2024, a 19% pull-back from the 2021 level over that three-year span — though 2025-26 counts are still filling in as publications catch up.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,325 records) with 2024 (1,071) — 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 52,988 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 52,988 patent records published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine power electronics or electrical equipment terminology with a specific functional class: power conversion, inverters, transformers, high-voltage equipment, motor control, power modules, electrical protection or wireless power transfer. It spans grid-facing hardware, EV propulsion electronics, and the control and protection circuitry that sits around them.
Because the search terms bridge both general electrical-equipment language and named sub-functions, the set captures work from automotive OEMs, industrial automation vendors and grid equipment makers side by side, rather than isolating any one of those groups. Family-level counts, used throughout, discount duplicate continuation and multi-jurisdiction filings so the concentration and trend figures reflect distinct inventions rather than paperwork volume.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 52,988-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across the IPC subclasses that define the field's functional core.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Annual filings rose from 1,044 in 2017 to a peak of 1,428 in 2022, then eased to 1,071 by 2024 – a 19% decline from the 2021 level of 1,325 over that three-year span. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent bars should not be read as a fall-off in real activity.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H02J (power supply and grid systems) and H02M (power conversion) are each present in roughly 8-9% of the 52,988 records, ahead of B60L (electric vehicle propulsion) at 5.6%. Printed circuit assemblies, motor control, semiconductor devices, surgical-adjacent electronics and electrical measurement each sit in the 2-3% range. Records commonly carry more than one class, so these shares add up to well over 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 52,988 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Power Electronics & Electrical Equipment Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about power electronics & electrical equipment patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this landscape
Methods and circuits configured to provide for multi-phase wireless power transfer
A method of providing wireless power transfer can include receiving multi-phase power at a transmitter portion of a multi-phase wireless power transfer system that is associated with an electrical equipment rack configured to house a plurality of electrical components, and wirelessly transferring the multi-phase power from the transmitter portion to a receiver portion of the system at a power level configured to operate those components.Filed by Eaton Capital Unlimited Company; published 2018-05-22 as US9979205B2.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170296213A1 | Systems and methods for controlling a surgical stapling and cutting instrument | 2,425 |
| 2 | US10265068B2 | Surgical instruments with separable motors and motor control circuits | 1,997 |
| 3 | US20190201140A1 | Surgical HUB situational awareness | 1,785 |
| 4 | US20190200844A1 | Method of HUB communication, processing, storage and display | 1,720 |
| 5 | US20190201104A1 | Surgical HUB spatial awareness to determine devices in operating theater | 1,666 |
| 6 | US20190206569A1 | Method of cloud based data analytics for use with the hub | 1,662 |
| 7 | US20190201142A1 | Automatic tool adjustments for robot-assisted surgical platforms | 1,653 |
| 8 | US20190200906A1 | Dual CMOS array imaging | 1,638 |
| 9 | US20190201136A1 | Method of HUB communication | 1,637 |
| 10 | US20190206555A1 | Cloud-based medical analytics for customization and recommendations to a user | 1,631 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older records are structurally favoured; treat this table as a map of influence within the searched corpus rather than a ranking of current technical importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the family-level data is broken down by concentration, technology class and receiving office.
No single filer controls the field
The five leading assignees together account for 13.0% of all records in scope, and the top 10 reach 19.5%. That leaves roughly four-fifths of filing activity spread across a long tail of automotive, industrial and grid-equipment entrants — a structure that rewards a freedom-to-operate search over assuming one company's portfolio defines the space.
Power supply and conversion carry the densest claim space
H02J (power supply and grid systems) and H02M (power conversion, AC/DC) are the two most heavily populated subclasses, each present in roughly one in twelve records. EV propulsion (B60L) trails at 5.6%, with motor control, semiconductor devices and measurement classes each in the low single digits.
Volume has pulled back from its 2022 peak
Filings peaked at 1,428 in 2022 after rising steadily from 1,044 in 2017. By 2024 – the most recent year with a complete publication record – annual filings had fallen to 1,071, a 19% decline from the 2021 level of 1,325. Later years are not yet fully published and should not be read against this trend.
Filing is concentrated in the US, with Europe and PCT as secondary routes
The United States receives the largest single share of filings among the tracked offices, with Europe (EPO), WIPO/PCT and Canada forming a second tier. Combined with the technology mix, this points to the US and EPO as the two jurisdictions where prior art density matters most for freedom-to-operate work.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to power electronics & electrical equipment patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and how activity is shifting
The ranked leaders span automotive OEMs, industrial automation vendors and grid equipment makers, with co-filing patterns that trace supplier and joint-venture relationships between them.
The top filer holds a modest lead
The leading assignee's 1,622 records put it well ahead of individual peers, but still represent only a fraction of the 52,988-record field – consistent with the broader concentration figures, where even the top 5 combined reach just 13.0% of all records.
Automotive groups co-file with allied brands
The strongest co-assignee pairs link sibling automotive brands and joint-venture partners, with the top pairs each appearing together on close to 200 records. This traces internal group structure – shared R&D between related marques – more than open cross-licensing between unrelated competitors.
Recent-year counts are down across most tracked filers
Every assignee in the recent-momentum tracking shows a sharp year-over-year decline, several down to zero filings in the latest year. This mirrors the publication-lag effect across the whole dataset rather than a genuine stop in R&D activity – the latest year's counts are simply the least complete.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Cilag GmbH International | 4 | -80% |
| Huawei Digital Power Technologies Co., Ltd. | 3 | -89% |
| Ford Global Technologies, LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Ethicon, Inc. | 0 | — |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | -100% |
| General Electric Company | 0 | -100% |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Hyundai Motor Company | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a fragmented but active field. The next step is usually to narrow from the aggregate view to a specific claim set or competitor.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on a specific sub-class
H02J and H02M carry the densest claim coverage; a targeted search within those subclasses against a specific circuit topology will surface the prior art that a whole-field view cannot.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack momentum on named competitors
Recent-year filing counts are volatile because of publication lag; monitoring a specific assignee's quarterly filings over time gives a more reliable read than a single year-over-year figure.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaMap the white space before drafting new claims
The under-claimed sub-areas identified here are starting points, not conclusions; a deeper claim-chart comparison against the closest existing filings will confirm how much room actually exists.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The ranked leaders in this dataset span automotive OEMs, industrial automation companies and grid equipment makers, with the top filer holding 1,622 records out of 52,988 in scope. No single company dominates: the top 5 assignees combined hold only 13.0% of all records, and the top 10 reach 19.5%, leaving most of the field spread across a long tail of active filers. This means competitive monitoring needs to track more than just the largest names to get a full picture.
Power supply and grid systems (IPC class H02J) and power conversion technologies such as inverters and AC/DC converters (H02M) are the two most heavily filed areas, each appearing in roughly 8-9% of the 52,988 records tracked. Electric vehicle propulsion (B60L) follows at 5.6%. Because a single patent can be classified under several IPC subclasses, these percentages overlap rather than summing to a whole field breakdown.
Filing volume grew steadily from 1,044 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,428 in 2022, then declined to 1,071 by 2024 – a 19% drop from the 2021 level of 1,325 over that three-year span. That said, patent publication typically lags actual filing by about 18 months, so the apparent drop-off in 2025 and 2026 data reflects incomplete records catching up rather than a genuine collapse in R&D activity. 2024 is the most recent year that can be read as a reasonably complete signal.
Among the receiving offices tracked, the United States accounts for the largest volume at 11,935 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 3,881 and the WIPO/PCT route at 2,153. Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom form a smaller secondary tier. This distribution suggests the US and EPO are the two jurisdictions where competitive prior art density is highest and where freedom-to-operate diligence matters most.
Relative to the dense coverage in power conversion and grid systems, several adjacent branches show thinner filing activity, including bidirectional EV charging protection circuits, multi-phase wireless power transfer for equipment racks, and wide-bandgap semiconductor power module packaging. These are starting points for a deeper claim-chart search rather than confirmed gaps, since sub-area filing density can shift once a narrower query is run against the specific claim language involved.
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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.