Precursor Delivery Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Precursor Delivery and Vaporization Patents: Who Leads and Where the Claims Sit
45.8% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 457 of 997 records in scope, but the next tier thins out fast — fifth place sits at 69 filings, tenth at just 26. Filings rose from 30 in 2017 to a peak of 100 in 2022, then eased toward 35 by 2024 — a -3% move from 2021's 36, essentially flat rather than a retreat. The 2025-2026 figures (down to 5 in the partial 2026 year) reflect publication lag, not a sudden stop in filing.
- 1VERSUM MATERIALS US LLC128
- 2TOKYO ELECTRON LTD102
- 3ADVANCED TECH MATERIALS INC80
- 4NICOVENTURES TRADING LTD78
- 5APPLIED MATERIALS INC69
See the full precursor delivery and vaporization analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
Who holds the most patents in precursor delivery and vaporization?
The ranked assignee set for this dataset covers 100 companies across 997 records, with the leading assignee holding 128 records — well ahead of the rest of the field. The top 5 combined account for 457 records, or 45.8% of all records in scope, but the field drops off quickly after that: fifth place sits at 69 filings and tenth place at 26. This means leadership is concentrated at the very top rather than spread evenly, and a freedom-to-operate review should prioritize those five portfolios first.
Is patent filing in precursor delivery growing or slowing down?
Filing volume moved from 30 in 2017 to a peak of 100 in 2022, then eased to 35 by 2024, a -3% change from 2021’s 36 filings — essentially flat rather than declining. The apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 is a publication-lag artifact: patents typically publish around 18 months after filing, so the most recent one to two years in any dataset always understate real activity. Treat 2024 as the most recent year with a reliable complete picture.
What patent classes cover precursor delivery and vaporization technology?
The dominant class is C23C, coating and surface deposition, appearing in 66.9% of the 997 records — by far the largest single category. H01L, semiconductor devices, follows at 35.2%, with H10P and C07F (organo-metallic and non-carbon compounds) each covering roughly a fifth of records. A secondary cluster around A24B, A24F and A24D reflects tobacco-related vaporizer hardware, a distinct application domain from semiconductor deposition that shares delivery-hardware claim language.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Precursor Delivery and Vaporization covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.