Printed & Flexible Electronics Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 39.0% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees account for 1,554 of the 3,982 records in scope — a field with a clear head but still room beneath it.
- Filing has plateaued, not collapsed. 2021 to 2024 filings moved from 294 to 290, roughly flat (-1%) once the most recent, still-incomplete years are set aside.
- Claims cluster around semiconductor and circuit classes. H01L and H05K together touch half the record set, while H10W and H05B sit under 7% each — a visible gap for organic and heating-circuit integration work.
Filing growth compares 2021 (294 records) with 2024 (290) — 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 3,982 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape draws on 3,982 published patent records filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine flexible substrates, printed electronic circuits, or flexible electronic devices with a second layer of claims on conductive ink, EMI shielding, environmental stress performance, substrate interconnects, or package reliability. That intersection is deliberate: it isolates work that has to survive bending, lamination, or thermal cycling in a real assembly, rather than any circuit described as merely flexible in passing.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend below are undercounts, not evidence of a slowdown. The reliable comparison window is 2021 through 2024.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,982 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A decade of filing activity
Filings rose from 233 in 2017 to a peak of 346 in 2023. The 2021-to-2024 window is essentially flat at -1%, and the sharp-looking drop into 2025 and 2026 reflects publication lag rather than a real pullback in filing.
Where the claims sit
H01L (semiconductor devices) and H05K (printed circuits and assemblies) are the two largest classes, together touching roughly half the record set; H10K (organic semiconductors), G06F and G02F follow. B32B, H05B and H10W each sit under 8%, marking the thinner end of the claim distribution.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,982 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Printed & Flexible Electronics Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about printed & flexible electronics patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
Method for Manufacturing a Flexible Electronic Device Using a Roll-Shaped Motherboard, Flexible Electronic Device, and Flexible Substrate
A method of manufacturing a flexible electronic device includes forming a flexible substrate on a roll-type mother substrate, separating the flexible substrate from the roll-type mother substrate, and forming an electronic device on a separation surface of the flexible substrate, which has contacted the roll-type mother substrate, thus solving the problems of low performance and low yield of flexible electronic devices due to a low processing temperature, high surface roughness, high thermal expansion coefficient, and poor handling characteristics.Filed by POSCO, published 2013-07-25 as US20130188324A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130041235A1 | Flexible and Stretchable Electronic Systems for Epidermal Electronics | 855 |
| 2 | US20130083496A1 | Flexible Electronic Devices | 578 |
| 3 | US6246330B1 | Elimination-absorber monitoring system | 557 |
| 4 | US20150343741A1 | Gas barrier film, film substrate provided with gas barrier film, and electronic device including the film sub… | 486 |
| 5 | US20040112964A1 | Applications of nano-enabled large area macroelectronic substrates incorporating nanowires and nanowire compo… | 392 |
| 6 | US20120157804A1 | High-Speed, High-Resolution Electrophysiology In-Vivo Using Conformal Electronics | 358 |
| 7 | US20040207530A1 | Elimination – absorber monitoring system | 356 |
| 8 | US20050040962A1 | Retractable flexible digital display apparatus | 334 |
| 9 | WO2011112931A1 | Waterproof stretchable optoelectronics | 322 |
| 10 | US20120165759A1 | Waterproof stretchable optoelectronics | 305 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus — treat this as a signal of influence on later filers, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the concentration, trend and technology-class figures above, framed for a team deciding where to file next.
The top of the field is dense, the rest is a long tail
Five assignees hold 1,554 of the 3,982 records in scope, but the ranked list runs to 100 companies with the tenth-place holder at only 56 records. That gap between fifth and tenth place says the leaders have staked out core process claims while the remaining space is fragmented across single- and few-filing entrants.
Flat filing, not a retreat
The -1% move from 294 records in 2021 to 290 in 2024 reads as a plateau rather than a decline. Combined with a 2023 peak of 346, the pattern is a field that has found a steady filing rate after several years of growth, with 2025-26 figures still incomplete due to publication lag.
Semiconductor and circuit classes carry the weight
H01L and H05K together are the densest classes, with H10K, G06F and G02F following. B32B (layered products), H05B (heating and lighting circuits) and H10W each sit at 7.6% or below, which marks where claim space is thinner relative to the rest of the set.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to printed & flexible electronics patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked list covers 100 assignees drawn from the 3,982 records in scope. Recent-year momentum figures show several leaders pulling back sharply on new filings even as the overall trend holds flat, which is consistent with a field where core positions are staked and later movement is incremental.
One filer sits well ahead of the pack
The leading assignee's 962 records dwarf the fifth-place figure of 103, an unusually steep drop-off for this kind of landscape. That gap suggests the leader's portfolio spans multiple sub-technologies rather than a single narrow claim set.
Filing pace has cooled sharply among top names
Several of the most active historical filers show latest-year filings down 87% to 100% year over year. This does not necessarily mean disengagement from the field — it is consistent with portfolios maturing past their initial filing burst, and with publication lag understating the very latest activity.
Co-filing is limited but pointed
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairing linked at 17 shared records. That is a small number against 3,982 total records, meaning most filings here are single-assignee work rather than joint development.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Innolux Corporation | 12 | -87% |
| Samsung Display Co., Ltd. | 3 | -90% |
| Jiaxing Super Lighting Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. | 1 | 0% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Corning Incorporated | 0 | -100% |
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) | 0 | — |
| The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above answer where the field stands. The next questions are usually about a specific claim, a specific competitor, or a specific gap.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 962 of 3,982 records, a freedom-to-operate check against that single portfolio is worth doing before scoping any new filing in flexible substrate or printed circuit claims.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaModel a claim in an under-claimed branch
Classes like H10W and H05B sit under 7% of records each — thinner ground than H01L or H05K. Drafting a first claim there starts with mapping what little prior art already sits in that space.
Draft claim language in EurekaTrack momentum shifts before they show up in filings
Several top assignees show sharp year-over-year drops in latest filings. Given publication lag, the real signal is 12-18 months old already, so monitoring for early movement matters.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads this landscape with 962 of the 3,982 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 103 records. The ranked list runs to 100 companies total, with a steep drop after the leader and a long tail of smaller filers below tenth place at 56 records. This pattern — one dominant filer plus a fragmented remainder — is typical of a field where a core manufacturing process was staked out early and then built on by many smaller players.
Filing volume was essentially flat from 2021 to 2024, moving from 294 to 290 records, a -1% change. The dataset's peak year so far is 2023 at 346 records. The apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 is not a real decline — publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so those years are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown.
The densest classes are H01L (semiconductor devices, 32.0% of the 3,982 records) and H05K (printed circuits and assemblies, 18.1%), followed by H10K (organic semiconductors including OLED, 17.1%), G06F (digital data processing, 14.9%) and G02F (optical control and modulation, 10.4%). Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed into a combined total. Thinner classes like B32B, H05B and H10W mark where claim density is lower relative to the rest of the field.
The clearest signal is in the thinner IPC classes relative to the dominant ones: H10W and H05B each sit at 5.7% and 6.1% of the 3,982 records, versus 32.0% for H01L. That gap suggests less claim density around organic-semiconductor heating and lighting circuit integration, EMI shielding for stretchable substrates, and conductive-ink package interconnects specifically. A freedom-to-operate review of those narrower branches is a more efficient use of drafting time than filing directly against the dominant H01L or H05K classes.
The top five assignees combined hold 1,554 records, which is 39.0% of the 3,982 records in scope; the top ten hold 1,898 records, or 47.7%. That means just under half the field's patent activity sits with ten organizations, while the other half is spread across the remaining ranked assignees and unranked filers. It is a moderately concentrated field rather than an extremely consolidated one — there is room for new entrants outside the top tier, but the leading names have durable positions worth checking before filing.
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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.