Probe Card Architectures Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
Probe card architecture patents: who holds the ground, and where it is still open
Concentrated but not locked up. the top 5 assignees hold 32.2% of all 6,211 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 43.3% — leaving well over half the field to a long tail of single- and low-volume filers. Annual filings rose to a peak of 272 in 2021, then fell to 147 by 2024 — a 46% decline over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 counts are still low because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months; they are not evidence of a further drop.
- 1FORMFACTOR INC14.7%
- 2TECHNOPROBE7.7%
- 3MPI CORP3.4%
- 4TOKYO ELECTRON LTD3.3%
- 5NHK SPRING CO LTD3.0%
See the full probe card architectures 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 on probe card patents
Who holds the most probe card architecture patents?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 914 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 188 and tenth place at 113. That gap indicates a genuine scale leader rather than a tight cluster at the top. Still, the top 5 assignees combined hold only 32.2% of all 6,211 records in scope, so more than two-thirds of the field is filed by others, including many single- or low-volume entrants.
Is the probe card patent field still growing?
Filing peaked at 272 in 2021 and had fallen to 147 by 2024, a 46% decline over that comparable three-year window. That is a real slowdown from peak, not a collapse, and it follows an unusually active period rather than a steady decline from the start of the dataset. Counts for 2025 and 2026 look low mainly because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so those years should not yet be read as a continuing drop.
What technology areas do probe card patents actually cover?
The dataset shows heavy concentration in electric and magnetic measurement claims, with 77.5% of the 6,211 records carrying a G01R classification, and 34.7% also touching H01L semiconductor device claims. Printed circuit assemblies, connectors, welding/brazing and electroplating each appear in a much smaller share of records, each under 12%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as overlap, not as a strict pie chart.
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 Probe Card Architectures 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.