Reverse Conducting IGBT Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
A data-backed look at reverse conducting IGBT patents: filing trends since 2017, the leading assignees, technology composition by IPC class, and the most-cited prior art.
Filing growth = 2021 (38 records) → 2024 (46); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 527 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What reverse conducting IGBT patents actually cover
A reverse conducting IGBT integrates the free-wheeling diode function directly into the IGBT chip, removing the need for a separate anti-parallel diode. That integration is where almost all of the claim activity in this dataset sits: diode cathode region layout on the back side of the chip, the trade-off between forward voltage drop and snap-back behaviour, and the manufacturing steps needed to control distribution density without adding mask layers. The 527 records in scope span 2015 through the current filing year, drawn from a search across titles, claims and the core IPC classes for semiconductor devices.
The filing pattern is not evenly spread. A small number of assignees account for well over a third of all records, and the technology composition skews heavily toward device-structure classes rather than the circuits or systems that use the chip. That combination — concentrated ownership, narrow technical footprint — is the first thing worth checking before committing engineering time to a new cell design.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 527 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
A decade of steady filing, peaking in 2024
Annual filings ran from 33 records in 2017 up to a peak of 46 in 2024, a 21% rise over the 2021-to-2024 span. Treat the 2025 and 2026 figures as incomplete rather than a decline — publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent two years will keep filling in as later filings publish.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Device-structure classes dominate; circuit-level classes trail
H01L (semiconductor devices) appears on 86.1% of the 527 records and H10D (semiconductor devices, general) on 41.7% — the two together confirm this field is fundamentally about chip structure, not the surrounding circuit. Pulse and logic technique (H03K, 11.2%) and power conversion (H02M, 5.1%) show up as secondary concerns, and measurement (G01R) and display control (G09G) each sit at just 1.3%, marking them as narrow, largely unclaimed adjacencies rather than core territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 527 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Power Semiconductors: Reverse Conducting IGBT Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe patents shaping this field
US8299495B2 — Reverse conducting IGBT (Renesas Electronics, filed 2012)
The patent addresses a specific trade-off in reverse conducting IGBT design: distributing diode cathode regions too sparsely raises the forward voltage drop of the fly-back diode, while distributing them too densely makes the collector-side PN junction hard to turn on and triggers snap-back. Renesas's claims cover a cathode-region arrangement intended to manage that trade-off without relying on a small number of large-area cathode-absent regions, which the patent describes as difficult to control precisely.Abstract text taken directly from the granted patent.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110299244A1 | Cooling member for heat containing device | 117 |
| 2 | JP2008072848A | Semiconductor device | 117 |
| 3 | US20100078707A1 | Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof | 115 |
| 4 | US20100301410A1 | Semiconductor device and manufacturing method therefor | 99 |
| 5 | US20120181575A1 | Semiconductor Device and a Reverse Conducting IGBT | 91 |
| 6 | JP2012151470A | Semiconductor device and reverse conducting IGBT | 84 |
| 7 | US20160351561A1 | Reverse conducting IGBT | 55 |
| 8 | CN102593168A | 半导体器件和逆导IGBT | 55 |
| 9 | US20110101416A1 | Bipolar semiconductor device and manufacturing method | 55 |
| 10 | US20080012043A1 | Semiconductor device and method of operating a semiconductor device | 53 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a measure of current technical 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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Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and composition numbers mean for filing strategy
Three figures from this dataset matter more than the rest for anyone deciding where to file next.
The leader alone holds 67 records
One assignee's count is more than three times the fifth-place figure of 21, and the top 5 combined account for 37.6% of all 527 records in scope. That is a steep drop-off, not a gentle taper — new entrants are filing against a field where the core structural claims already have a dominant holder.
Activity climbed into 2024, then the data thins
Filings rose from 38 in 2021 to 46 in 2024, the highest year on record in this dataset. The 2025 and 2026 counts look lower only because publication has not caught up with filing yet — do not read them as a slowdown.
Claims cluster tightly on device structure
H01L and H10D between them cover the great majority of records, while power conversion, measurement and display-control tie-ins each stay under 8%. A field this narrow in classification terms has little room left in the core structure but real gaps in how the chip integrates with adjacent circuitry.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to power semiconductors: reverse conducting igbt patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. | 5 |
| Zhuzhou CRRC Times Semiconductor Co., Ltd. | Dynex Semiconductor Ltd. | 5 |
| University of Electronic Science and Technology of China | Wuxi China Resources Huajing Microelectronics Co., Ltd. | 1 |
Co-assignee activity is limited to three pairs in this dataset, the strongest linking a major automaker with its affiliated research institute and another linking a rail-transport semiconductor manufacturer with a specialist diode supplier — evidence of applied, production-driven collaboration rather than broad industry-wide co-filing.
Where to take this analysis
The numbers on this page describe the field as filed. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific competitors.
Map claims against your own cell design
Run your specific diode-cathode arrangement or trench structure against the most-cited records and the leading assignee's portfolio before you draft new claims.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaWatch the automaker-supplier pairings
The co-assignee pattern here points to vertically integrated filing between automakers and their component suppliers — track those relationships as they extend into new markets.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack the under-claimed adjacencies
Power conversion circuitry and measurement tie-ins remain thin in this dataset — that is where a well-drafted first claim has room to stand.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaFrequently asked questions
A reverse conducting IGBT (RC-IGBT) integrates a free-wheeling diode into the same silicon chip as the IGBT switch, instead of pairing the IGBT with a separate discrete diode. That integration creates its own set of design problems — chiefly how to lay out diode cathode regions on the chip's back side without causing excessive forward voltage drop or snap-back at the collector junction — which is why it generates a distinct, identifiable body of patent claims rather than being folded into general IGBT filings. This dataset isolates that claim set using both title and claims-language searches combined with the relevant semiconductor-device IPC classes.
The ranking in this dataset covers 100 assignees, and ownership is concentrated: the leading assignee holds 67 of the 527 records in scope, more than three times the count held by the fifth-ranked filer at 21. The top 5 assignees combined account for 37.6% of all records, and the top 10 combined reach 52.8%. That leaves a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants competing for the remaining claim space rather than a broad, evenly distributed field.
Filings grew from 38 records in 2021 to 46 in 2024, a 21% increase over that span and the highest annual count in the dataset. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower, but that reflects publication lag — patent applications typically publish roughly 18 months after filing, so the most recent one to two years always look artificially thin until later filings catch up. Based on the 2021–2024 trend, the honest read is sustained growth into 2024, not a slowdown.
Device-structure classes dominate the field: H01L covers 86.1% of the 527 records and H10D covers 41.7%. By contrast, power conversion circuitry (H02M) sits at only 5.1%, and measurement (G01R) and display-control circuits (G09G) each sit at just 1.3% of records. Those low-share classes mark the adjacencies where the chip structure itself is well claimed but its integration into surrounding power-conversion or control circuitry is comparatively open.
US8299495B2, assigned to Renesas Electronics and filed in 2012, claims a specific arrangement of diode cathode regions on the back side of a reverse conducting IGBT chip designed to balance forward voltage drop against collector-junction snap-back without relying on a small number of large cathode-absent areas. Anyone filing a new cathode-region layout for an RC-IGBT needs to check their design against this claim scope specifically, since it addresses the exact trade-off that most cell-structure innovation in this field is trying to solve. It is one of the most-cited records in this dataset, meaning later filers have repeatedly had to draft around or build on it.
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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.