Nanoscale Surface Metrology Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
A patent landscape review of nanoscale surface metrology: filing trends since 2017, the concentration of assignees, IPC technology mix, and the most-cited foundational patents shaping AFM, interferometry and scanning-pro
Filing growth = 2021 (155 records) → 2024 (71); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 3,419 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Nanoscale surface metrology sits at the intersection of dimensional measurement and semiconductor process control: atomic force microscopy, interferometric profilometry and scanning-probe measurement methods that resolve surface topography and roughness at nanometer to sub-nanometer scale. The scope tracked here spans 3,419 patent records published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from title/abstract language around nanoscale surface metrology and claim language pairing surface measurement terms with interferometry, AFM or scanning-probe techniques. Because families are counted rather than raw filings wherever possible, the figures below are less distorted by continuation practice or multi-jurisdiction refiling than a simple document count would be.
The technology sits downstream of semiconductor lithography, optical component manufacture and precision machine tools, which is why IPC classes for measuring instruments (G01B), semiconductor devices (H01L) and scanning-probe instruments (G01Q) co-occur so heavily across the corpus. Receiving-office data shows the United States as the dominant filing venue, with PCT and EPO filings forming the next tier, consistent with a technology whose commercial stakes concentrate in advanced-node fabs and optics houses headquartered or listed in those jurisdictions.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,419-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim volume today.
Filings rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2021, then pulled back
Annual filings climbed from 138 in 2017 to a peak of 155 in 2021, then declined to 71 by 2024 — a 54% fall over that three-year window. Treat 2025 and 2026 counts as provisional: publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent two years will keep filling in and should not yet be read as a continued decline.
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.
Measurement and semiconductor classes carry the bulk of the claim volume
G01B (measuring length and dimensions) and H01L (semiconductor devices) each appear in a little over a fifth of all 3,419 records, with G01N material testing, G02B optical elements and G01Q scanning-probe instruments forming a second tier. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares sum to well over 100% of the record total — they describe overlap in claim scope, not a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,419 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Precision & Ultraprecision Manufacturing: Nanoscale Surface Metrology Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe most-cited foundational patents
US5196701A — High-resolution detection of material property variations
The patent describes a method for detecting and profiling material property or structural changes both at a sample's surface and subsurface. A nondestructive periodic or modulated perturbation is applied to the sample, which is then scanned with a microprobe technique such as scanning tunneling microscopy or atomic force microscopy responsive to that perturbation; the modulated output is processed against the input perturbation signal to control and characterise the measurement.Filed under GlobalFoundries' predecessor entity in 1993, this record predates most of the corpus and sits close to the foundational method claims that later AFM- and STM-based surface metrology filings build on.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20070010702A1 | Medical device with low magnetic susceptibility | 1,511 |
| 2 | US7091412B2 | Magnetically shielded assembly | 1,127 |
| 3 | US20050107870A1 | Medical device with multiple coating layers | 578 |
| 4 | US20160085003A1 | Materials, components, and methods for use with extreme ultraviolet radiation in lithography and other applic… | 434 |
| 5 | US5398113A | Method and apparatus for surface topography measurement by spatial-frequency analysis of interferograms | 410 |
| 6 | US6002471A | High resolution scanning raman microscope | 360 |
| 7 | US20040254419A1 | Therapeutic assembly | 327 |
| 8 | US20050025797A1 | Medical device with low magnetic susceptibility | 314 |
| 9 | US5412980A | Tapping atomic force microscope | 307 |
| 10 | US20050079132A1 | Medical device with low magnetic susceptibility | 303 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a measure of influence on later filers, not as a signal of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three readings of the same dataset, aimed at where to file, who to watch, and how open the field still is.
No single assignee controls the field
The leading assignee holds 118 records, but the top 5 combined account for only 12.0% of all 3,419 records, and the top 10 for 18.3%. That leaves a wide field of entrants with a handful of filings each rather than a small set of gatekeepers.
Activity has pulled back from its 2021 peak
Filings rose steadily from 138 in 2017 to a peak of 155 in 2021, then fell to 71 by 2024 — a 54% decline over three years. The pullback predates the most recent, still-incomplete filing years, so it reflects a real cooling rather than a reporting artefact.
Measurement claims and semiconductor claims heavily overlap
G01B and H01L each appear on roughly a fifth of all records, meaning a large share of surface-metrology claims are drafted with semiconductor fabrication context attached. Filers entering the space without that overlap risk narrower claim scope than incumbents drafting across both classes.
The US remains the primary filing venue
United States filings (1,594) outnumber PCT (512) and EPO (498) filings by a wide margin, with Germany, Australia and Austria forming a smaller secondary tier. Enforcement and freedom-to-operate analysis for this technology should start with US prosecution history.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to precision & ultraprecision manufacturing: nanoscale surface metrology patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with room at the edges even as headline filing volume cools. These are the natural next steps for a team acting on it.
Map the white space behind the overlap classes
G01Q scanning-probe and G03F photolithography classes carry meaningfully lower record counts than G01B or H01L despite adjacent subject matter — worth checking whether that reflects genuine technical difficulty or simply under-claimed territory.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the long tail for consolidation signals
With the top 10 assignees holding only 18.3% of records, shifts in co-filing pairs or new entrants breaking into the ranked leaders are an early signal of where the field is consolidating.
Track assignee movement in EurekaRevisit 2025-26 filings once they mature
The apparent post-2021 decline is real through 2024, but the final two years of the window are still filling in behind the typical 18-month publication lag and should be rechecked before drawing conclusions about current momentum.
Set a filing alert in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 118 records out of 3,419 in scope, but no single company dominates the field: the top 5 assignees combined account for only 12.0% of all records, and the top 10 for 18.3%. That leaves the large majority of filings spread across a long tail of companies with just a handful of records each, so freedom-to-operate work needs to look well beyond the largest few filers.
Filings grew from 138 in 2017 to a peak of 155 in 2021, then fell to 71 by 2024, a 54% decline over that three-year span. That is a genuine pullback, not a reporting artefact, because 2024 is the last year in this window that can be treated as filing-complete. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so it is too early to read a continued decline into the most recent years.
The two largest IPC subclasses are G01B (measuring length and dimensions), covering 21.1% of the 3,419 records, and H01L (semiconductor devices), covering 20.9%. Material analysis (G01N), optical elements (G02B) and scanning-probe instruments (G01Q) form a second tier. Because a single patent can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to well over 100% of the record total, reflecting how often metrology claims are drafted alongside semiconductor fabrication claims.
US5196701A claims a method of applying a periodic or modulated perturbation to a sample and then scanning it with a microprobe technique — scanning tunneling microscopy or atomic force microscopy — that responds to that perturbation, with the output demodulated against the input signal to characterise surface and subsurface material properties. Anyone building a perturbation-and-demodulation measurement loop on top of AFM or STM scanning is working close to this claim language. It is one of the older records in this corpus, filed in 1993, so its practical blocking effect today depends heavily on whether it remains in force in the relevant jurisdiction.
The United States leads by a wide margin with 1,594 filings, followed by WIPO/PCT filings at 512 and European (EPO) filings at 498. Germany, Australia and Austria form a smaller secondary tier. This distribution suggests that US prosecution history is the natural starting point for freedom-to-operate or invalidity work in this space, with PCT and EPO records as the next layer of relevant prior art.
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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.