Precursor Delivery Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 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 plateaued, not collapsed. From 2021 to 2024 — the last year with a complete filing record — volume moved from 36 to 35, roughly flat rather than in decline.
- Coating chemistry dominates the claim space. C23C (coating & surface deposition) touches 66.9% of the 997 records, far ahead of the semiconductor-device class H01L at 35.2%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (36 records) with 2024 (35) — 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 997 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Precursor delivery and vaporization spans the hardware and chemistry that get a solid or liquid precursor into a usable gas phase for deposition — bubblers, ampoule-based delivery, vaporizer units — plus the control problems that come with it: vapor pressure stability, condensation in line, and flow controller accuracy. The search underlying this page pulls 997 published records from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, indexed against both the delivery hardware and the failure modes that show up in claims language, such as thermal decomposition and ampoule level sensing.
Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one or two years in any trend chart will always look lighter than the underlying filing activity actually was — treat 2025 and 2026 as still filling in, not as a real drop.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 997-record dataset: how filing activity moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A decade of filing activity
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.
Where the claims concentrate
C23C (coating & surface deposition) appears in 66.9% of the 997 records, making it the dominant class by a wide margin. H01L (semiconductor devices) follows at 35.2%, with H10P and C07F (organo-metallic compounds) each covering roughly a fifth of the corpus. A24B/A24F/A24D — tobacco preparation, smokers' requisites, cigars and filters — form a distinct secondary cluster tied to vaporizer-unit hardware used outside semiconductor manufacturing, together touching under 10% each but marking a separate application domain worth tracking on its own.
Shares are the percentage of the 997 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Precursor delivery systems, precursor supply packages, and related methods
The filing covers precursor delivery systems built around one or more precursor supply packages holding a solid precursor material, heated to a temperature sufficient to drive thermal decomposition and release a gas precursor for downstream use. It extends to the supply packages themselves and to related methods of producing and delivering the resulting gas precursor.Filed by Entergris, Inc.; published 2023-03-02.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6337102B1 | Low pressure vapor phase deposition of organic thin films | 3,736 |
| 2 | US20110256726A1 | Plasma activated conformal film deposition | 917 |
| 3 | US20040025787A1 | System for depositing a film onto a substrate using a low pressure gas precursor | 775 |
| 4 | US20120009802A1 | Plasma activated conformal dielectric film deposition | 759 |
| 5 | US20030003635A1 | Atomic layer deposition for fabricating thin films | 720 |
| 6 | US20100255198A1 | Solid precursor-based delivery of fluid utilizing controlled solids morphology | 681 |
| 7 | US20120028454A1 | Plasma activated conformal dielectric film deposition | 662 |
| 8 | US20040168627A1 | Atomic layer deposition of oxide film | 656 |
| 9 | US5348774A | Method of rapidly densifying a porous structure | 648 |
| 10 | US20060263522A1 | Apparatus for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with showerhead and method thereof | 641 |
Citation counts favour older, foundational filings inside this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later claim drafting, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend, and the IPC composition are read together.
A short leadership tier, then a long tail
The top 5 assignees combine for 457 of the 997 records in scope, but the drop to fifth place (69 filings) and tenth place (26) is steep. That gap is where a well-resourced entrant without a large existing portfolio can still stake a defensible position, particularly outside the leaders' core claim clusters.
Flat, not falling, once lag is accounted for
The -3% shift from 2021 to 2024 is close to stable filing volume rather than a technology cooling off. Individual leaders show sharper year-on-year swings — several of the largest assignees show 0 filings in the latest year, a pattern consistent with publication lag rather than withdrawal from the space.
Coating and deposition claims crowd the center
Two-thirds of records carry a C23C classification, meaning core deposition-chemistry claims are heavily occupied. The organo-metallic precursor class C07F, at 21.5%, and the memory-device class H10B, at 5.8%, are comparatively lighter — worth checking before assuming any adjacent chemistry route is equally saturated.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to precursor delivery and vaporization, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where they are slowing
The ranked assignee set spans semiconductor equipment makers, materials suppliers and — via the vaporizer-unit hardware overlap — tobacco product companies. Recent-year momentum figures should be read against the publication-lag caveat rather than as a real-time competitive signal.
A materials-and-equipment leader out front
The top-ranked assignee holds 128 records, well clear of the field, reflecting a broad filing program across delivery hardware and precursor chemistry rather than a single product line.
Several leaders show zero filings in the latest year
Multiple assignees in the top ranks — including major equipment and materials suppliers — show 0 filings in the most recent year with a -100% year-on-year change. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as pipeline still filling rather than a genuine pullback.
Filing partnerships are limited but concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairing links a leading equipment maker with a major systems and technology company — a signal that most filing here happens under a single corporate entity rather than through joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Entegris, Inc. | 1 | -50% |
| Advanced Technology Materials, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Versum Materials US, LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Tokyo Electron Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Nicoventures Trading Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Micron Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next questions depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy, or scouting for white space.
Map claims against the top 5 in detail
With 45.8% of records held by five assignees, a claim-by-claim comparison against just those portfolios will surface most of the crowded ground before broader searching is needed.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches
Ampoule level sensing, in-line condensation control and flow controller drift correction show thinner coverage than the C23C core — worth a focused prior-art pull before drafting there.
Run a white-space search in EurekaWatch for the lag-adjusted rebound
Several leaders show 0 filings in the latest year purely from publication lag; re-checking momentum in two to three quarters will separate real slowdowns from filing pipeline still catching up.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
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.
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.
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.
Relative to the dense C23C coating core, sub-areas like ampoule level sensing, in-line condensation mitigation, flow controller drift correction and solid-precursor thermal decomposition control show comparatively thinner claim coverage. These are technical control problems referenced in the search criteria but not yet as heavily claimed as the core deposition chemistry. A first claim in one of these areas would likely need to specify a concrete sensing or control mechanism rather than a broad delivery-system architecture, since the broad architectures are already well covered by the top assignees.
US20230068384A1, assigned to Entergris, Inc. and published 2023-03-02, covers precursor delivery systems built around precursor supply packages that hold a solid precursor material and heat it to drive thermal decomposition, releasing a gas precursor for downstream use. The filing extends to the supply packages themselves and to methods of producing and delivering the resulting gas. Anyone designing a solid-precursor delivery package using controlled thermal decomposition should review its specific claim language closely, since it sits directly in the densest part of this landscape's claim space.
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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.