Satellite Phased Array Antenna Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has already peaked. Applications topped out at 198 in 2018 and had fallen to single digits by 2026, with the 2022 midpoint at 157 — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- Antenna claims dominate, but the field spills into radar and RF hardware. H01Q covers nearly the entire dataset (3,873 of 3,877 records), while G01S positioning claims (541) and H01P waveguide/microwave element claims (215) show where the hardware integration work is happening.
- The named leaders have gone quiet in the latest year. Boeing, Mitsubishi Electric, Raytheon, Viasat and NEC all show zero filings in the most recent year tracked, with Mitsubishi Electric and Viasat down 100% year-on-year — a filing lull, not necessarily a technology exit.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families filed against satellite phased array antenna technology, combining title and claim-level search terms — beam steering, flat-panel antenna, active electronically scanned array, beamforming network — with core phased-array IPC codes (H01Q3/26, H01Q21/06, H01Q1/28). The result is 3,877 published records spanning 2015 through mid-2026, concentrated almost entirely in the H01Q antenna subclass but reaching into radar positioning, waveguide hardware and RF measurement disciplines.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend line understate real filing activity; the true recent trajectory is likely somewhat higher than shown but the downward direction from the 2018 peak is already well established.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The filing curve and the IPC breakdown together show a technology that expanded quickly, peaked, and is now being worked through incrementally rather than expanded into.
A decade-long rise and fall
Filings rose from 110 in 2017 to a peak of 198 in 2018, held near that level through the 2022 midpoint of 157, and then declined sharply toward the 2026 data cut-off, where only 8 records are recorded — partly an artifact of publication lag, but the direction has been downward since well before the most recent partial year.
Concentrated in antennas, spilling into RF and radar
H01Q antenna claims appear in nearly every record (3,873 of 3,877), confirming this is a tightly defined antenna-hardware search. The next largest subclasses — H04B transmission (769), G01S radar and positioning (541), and H01P waveguides and microwave elements (215) — mark the integration points where phased-array claims meet communications payload and signal-routing hardware, while G01R measurement (124), H04W wireless networks (110), G02B optics (65) and H05K printed circuit assembly (63) form a thinner periphery of adjacent claim activity.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,877 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Satellite Phased Array Antenna Technology Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about satellite phased array antenna technology landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaFoundational and representative filings
Phased array antenna having reduced beam settling time and related methods (US20020070897A1, NETGEAR)
A phased array antenna may include a substrate and a plurality of phased array antenna elements carried by the substrate. The phased array antenna may also include a plurality of antenna element controllers for the phased array antenna elements and a central controller for providing beam steering commands and edge trigger synchronization signals for the antenna element controllers. Each antenna element controller stores a next beam steering command and implements it as the active command in response to the edge trigger synchronization signal from the central controller.Abstract text as filed; edited only for length.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6377217B1 | Serially-fed phased array antennas with dielectric phase shifters | 428 |
| 2 | US4123759A | Phased array antenna | 348 |
| 3 | US5463656A | System for conducting video communications over satellite communication link with aircraft having physically … | 346 |
| 4 | US6538603B1 | Phased array antennas incorporating voltage-tunable phase shifters | 340 |
| 5 | US5512906A | Clustered phased array antenna | 325 |
| 6 | US5434575A | Phased array antenna system using polarization phase shifting | 317 |
| 7 | US7274336B2 | Aircraft phased array antenna structure including adjacently supported equipment | 297 |
| 8 | WO1999052173A2 | Phased array antenna calibration system and method | 295 |
| 9 | US20150084814A1 | Phased array antenna | 287 |
| 10 | US6396440B1 | Phased array antenna apparatus | 287 |
Citation counts reward older filings simply for having more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus; treat them as a measure of influence on subsequent filers, not of present-day 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 numbers mean for a filing decision
Three data points matter more than the raw record count when deciding where to file next.
The growth phase is over
A field that filed 198 families in a single year and now files single digits has moved from expansion to defence. New entrants should expect dense prior art on core steering and beamforming claims rather than open ground.
Almost pure antenna-hardware claims
The near-total concentration in H01Q means differentiation in this dataset happens inside antenna hardware itself — element design, phase shifting, array architecture — not in adjacent signal-processing claims, which sit in the much smaller H04B and G01S subclasses.
US filing leads, but not by an overwhelming margin
The United States leads with 1,022 filings, but Europe (599), Japan (548) and China (427) each carry meaningful volume, and WIPO PCT filings (297) show that a material share of applicants are still pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection despite the overall filing slowdown.
Named leaders have paused, not necessarily exited
Boeing, Mitsubishi Electric, Hanwha, Raytheon, Viasat and NEC all show zero filings in the most recent tracked year, with Mitsubishi Electric and Viasat down 100% year-on-year. Given the 18-month publication lag, this is as likely to reflect a reporting gap as a genuine exit from the technology.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to satellite phased array antenna technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where the ties run
Ten recorded co-assignee pairs point to a field where most work is still filed solo, with a small number of recurring collaboration ties between corporate and research-lab partners.
Collaboration is narrow and specific
The strongest tie in the dataset links Raytheon with HRL Laboratories at 7 shared records, matched by a Fujikura-IBM pairing also at 7; a Mitsubishi Electric-NTT pairing follows at 4. These look like sustained joint-development programmes rather than one-off co-filings.
Filing is genuinely multi-regional
With the US, EPO, Japan, China, WIPO and South Korea all recording over 190 filings each, no single jurisdiction has a lock on this technology. Applicants weighing where to seek protection should expect prior art in all six offices, not just the home market of the leading assignees.
A quiet period across the named leaders
None of the tracked leading assignees — spanning US defence primes, Japanese electronics majors and satellite communications firms — show filings in the most recent year, which given publication lag is consistent with either a genuine pause or simply unpublished pending applications.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Boeing | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Hanwha | 0 | — |
| Raytheon | 0 | — |
| Viasat | 0 | -100% |
| NEC Corporation | 0 | — |
| Hughes Aircraft Company | 0 | — |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking or identifying open claim space.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the most-cited patents
The five most-cited records in this corpus, several dating to the 1990s and early 2000s, underpin much of the claim language still in use. Confirm their current legal status and expiry before committing to a design that resembles them.
Check patent status in EurekaTrack the quiet leaders for renewed filing
Six major assignees show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Set an alert for renewed activity from any of them, since a resumption after a lull often signals a new product cycle rather than abandonment.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaExplore the under-claimed sub-areas directly
Thermal compensation for phase shifters, conformal integration, and printed-circuit array assembly all show thinner filing density than core steering claims. A targeted search in each could surface open claim space before a competitor files there.
Search white space in EurekaCommon questions on satellite phased array antenna patents
The dataset's assignee ranking is led by a mix of US defence primes, Japanese electronics majors and satellite communications firms, including Boeing, Mitsubishi Electric, Hanwha, Raytheon, Viasat and NEC. All six show zero filings in the most recent tracked year, which given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication may understate genuinely recent activity. Rather than relying on a single leader, the field shows filing spread across several established players with occasional joint filings, such as the Raytheon-HRL Laboratories and Fujikura-IBM pairings recorded in the co-assignee data.
No — filings peaked at 198 in 2018, held near that level through a 2022 midpoint of 157, and have declined sharply since, reaching just 8 by the 2026 cut-off. Some of that recent drop is a publication-lag artifact rather than a true collapse in activity, since recently filed applications may not yet be published. But the overall trajectory from peak to trough spans several years and points to a technology whose core claim space is now well occupied rather than one in an expansion phase.
The core classification is H01Q, which covers antennas broadly and appears in 3,873 of the 3,877 records in this dataset — essentially the entire corpus. Adjacent classifications matter for specific integration points: G01S covers radar and positioning applications (541 records), H04B covers general transmission systems (769 records), and H01P covers waveguides and microwave elements (215 records). Searches limited to H01Q alone will miss claims that sit at these boundaries, particularly in radar-integrated or waveguide-heavy designs.
The thinner IPC subclasses in this dataset — G02B optics (65 records) and H05K printed circuit assembly (63 records) — suggest less-claimed intersections between phased array antennas and optical beam steering or printed-circuit-based array manufacturing. Sub-areas like phase shifter thermal compensation and conformal array integration for aircraft or vehicles also show lower relative filing density than core beam-steering claims. A first claim in these areas would likely combine a specific manufacturing or integration method with the antenna element itself, rather than claiming beam steering broadly, which is heavily prior-arted.
The United States leads with 1,022 filings recorded at its receiving office, followed by the European Patent Office at 599, Japan at 548, China at 427, WIPO under the PCT route at 297, and South Korea at 197. This spread across six offices with meaningful volume means a freedom-to-operate or filing strategy limited to just one or two jurisdictions will miss a substantial share of the relevant prior art and competitive activity.
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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.