SAW and BAW Filter Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Concentrated but not locked up. The top 5 assignees hold 37.5% of all 341 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 48.7% — leaving more than half the field to a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
- Filing peaked in 2022 at 60 records and has declined since, with 2026 (partial year) showing only 2 — a sign the field's core claim space is largely staked out rather than still expanding.
- H03H dominates at 97.7% of records, while adjacent classes like H10N (8.8%) and H01L (8.2%) show meaningfully thinner coverage — that gap is where narrower claims still have room.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 341 published records at the intersection of surface acoustic wave (SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter design, filtered specifically to documents addressing temperature coefficient of frequency, quality factor, power handling, band edge steepness, or wafer level packaging — the performance and manufacturing levers that separate a filed concept from a filter that ships in an RF front end. The scope spans filing offices from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off, so the most recent year is necessarily incomplete.
Because continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction refiling can inflate raw document counts, the assignee ranking here is built on patent families — a fairer basis for judging who is actually active versus who has simply filed the same invention in several places.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 341-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Both are read against the full record count, not the ranked assignee list.
Filing trend: a peak already behind us
Annual filings rose from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 60 in 2022, then declined through 2026 (2, partial). Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the last one to two years understate true filing activity, but the shape of the decline from the 2022 midpoint is consistent enough to read as a genuine slowdown in new filing, not just a reporting gap.
IPC composition: one dominant class, several thin ones
H03H (impedance networks & filters) covers 97.7% of the 341 records, confirming this is the expected core classification for the search scope. Below it, H10N (8.8%), H01L (8.2%), H04B (3.8%) and H03F (3.2%) show real but comparatively light coverage — these are the classes where a record combines core filter claims with device-integration or amplifier-adjacent claims, and where narrower, well-drafted claims face less prior art.
Shares are the percentage of the 341 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on SAW and BAW Filter Devices with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about saw and baw filter devices and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this field
US9819329B2 — Ladder-type surface acoustic wave filter including series and parallel resonators
A ladder-type surface acoustic wave filter assembly includes a plurality of series resonators formed on a substrate and connected between an input terminal and an output terminal. A first series resonator has a lowest resonance frequency among the plurality of series resonators. A parallel resonator formed on the substrate and connected between the plurality of series resonators and the ground terminal. A dielectric film is coupled to at least one of the plurality of series resonators and has an inverse temperature coefficient of frequency to that of the substrate, with film thickness varying by resonator position.Filed by Skyworks Filter Solutions Japan, published 2017-11-14 — a temperature-compensation approach built directly into ladder-filter resonator geometry.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160028367A1 | Single crystal acoustic resonator and bulk acoustic wave filter | 357 |
| 2 | US9219466B2 | Laterally coupled bulk acoustic wave filter with improved passband characteristics | 288 |
| 3 | US20040226162A1 | Method and manufacturing surface acoustic wave device | 141 |
| 4 | US20140312994A1 | Laterally coupled bulk acoustic wave filter with improved passband characteristics | 134 |
| 5 | US6833774B2 | Surface acoustic wave filter | 126 |
| 6 | US5202652A | Surface acoustic wave filter device formed on a plurality of piezoelectric substrates | 96 |
| 7 | WO2005034349A1 | Ladder-type thin-film bulk acoustic wave filter | 82 |
| 8 | US5874869A | Surface acoustic wave filter device on 40 DEG to 42 DEG rotated Y-X LITAO3 | 78 |
| 9 | US7230512B1 | Wafer-level surface acoustic wave filter package with temperature-compensating characteristics | 59 |
| 10 | US6043585A | Acoustic wave filter | 52 |
Citation counts are drawn from within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings that have simply had more time to accumulate citations — treat them as a signal of influence on subsequent filers, 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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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Reading the concentration, trend, and classification data together points to a field where core ladder-filter and temperature-compensation claims are well staked, but supporting sub-areas remain comparatively open.
The top of the field is dense, the rest is fragmented
With the top 5 assignees holding 37.5% of all 341 records and the top 10 holding 48.7%, over half the field's filings sit outside the leading ten organisations. That long tail — single-digit and one-off filers — is where freedom-to-operate analysis needs the most care, since it is not covered by watching a handful of large portfolios.
The filing curve has already turned down
Growth from 8 filings in 2017 to a 2022 peak of 60 marks the field's most active build-out period. The decline since, even accounting for publication lag understating the last one to two years, suggests the most obvious claim positions in core ladder and lattice filter design have already been staked.
Core filter claims are saturated; integration claims are not
Nearly every record touches H03H, the core filter classification, but only a minority extend into H10N (solid-state device integration) or H01L (semiconductor device structure). That gap is where claims combining filter performance with packaging or substrate integration face materially less prior art density.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to saw and baw filter devices, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Royal Philips) | Philips Intellectual Property & Standards GmbH | 3 |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | NAKAMURA HIROYUKI | 2 |
| Fujitsu Limited | Fujitsu Media Devices Limited | 2 |
| Fujitsu Limited | National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) | 2 |
| SHENZHEN NEWSONIC TECH CO LTD | Shenzhen Newsonic Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | TSURUNARI TETABUYA | 1 |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | TAKAYAMA RYOICHI | 1 |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | NAKANISHI HIDEKAZU | 1 |
Co-assignee pairs are rare in this dataset (10 pairs total), with the strongest pairings linking corporate parent-subsidiary structures rather than independent co-development — a sign that most filings here are single-entity efforts rather than joint ventures.
Who is filing, and who has slowed down
The leader in this ranking holds 46 records, with the count dropping to 11 by fifth place and 6 by tenth — a steep drop-off that confirms most of the field's activity sits with a small number of organisations, even though the top 10 combined account for under half of all records.
A clear single leader, then a steep drop
The leading assignee's 46 records are well ahead of fifth place at 11, indicating one organisation has filed at a materially higher rate than the rest of the field across the tracked period.
Several leading filers show zero recent-year activity
Multiple assignees that built substantial portfolios in earlier years — including entities with -100% year-over-year change — show no filings in the latest tracked year. That pattern is consistent with claim space maturing faster than publication lag alone would explain, though the most recent year is still partial.
US receiving office dominates, China is the clear second market
United States filings (196) outnumber China (64) and EPO (35) by a wide margin, with Japan, WIPO/PCT, and the UK trailing further behind. This distribution suggests US filing remains the primary venue for establishing priority in this field, with China representing the largest secondary filing destination.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Skyworks Solutions, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| SHENZHEN NEWSONIC TECH CO LTD | 0 | — |
| Qorvo US, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | 0 | — |
| Fujitsu Limited | 0 | — |
| Changzhou Chengxin Semiconductor Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| RFHIC Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with a stable technical core and a declining filing rate — the open questions now are about where remaining claim space sits and which portfolios are actually still active.
Map the under-claimed branches in detail
The gap between H03H's 97.7% coverage and thinner classes like H10N and H01L is a starting point, not a conclusion — a claim-by-claim review of records in those overlapping classes will show exactly what is and is not already covered.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack which leaders have actually stopped filing
Several top assignees show zero filings in the latest tracked year; distinguishing a genuine pullback from a publication-lag artifact requires monitoring filings as they publish rather than relying on the trend alone.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCheck freedom-to-operate against the long tail
With over half of all 341 records held outside the top 10 assignees, a freedom-to-operate check needs to cover the fragmented tail of single- and few-filing entities, not just the concentrated leaders.
Run a clearance search in EurekaCommon questions about SAW and BAW filter patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset covers 100 companies across 341 records, with a single leader holding 46 records versus 11 at fifth place and 6 at tenth. The top 5 assignees combined account for 37.5% of all records and the top 10 for 48.7%, meaning that despite a clear leader, over half the field's activity comes from organisations outside the top ten. Anyone assessing competitive position should look at both the concentrated top and the fragmented long tail, since freedom-to-operate risk is not limited to the largest portfolios.
No — filing activity peaked in 2022 at 60 records after rising from 8 in 2017, and has declined in the years since, with 2026 showing only 2 filings so far. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the most recent one to two years are always undercounted, so the true 2025–2026 filing rate is somewhat higher than shown. Even accounting for that lag, the shape of the decline from the 2022 peak points to a maturing rather than expanding filing environment.
Core filter design under IPC class H03H covers 97.7% of the 341 records in scope, making it the densest and most contested area. Adjacent classes show materially lower coverage — H10N (other solid-state devices) at 8.8%, H01L (semiconductor devices) at 8.2%, H04B (transmission) at 3.8%, and H03F (amplifiers) at 3.2% — suggesting that claims combining core filter performance with device integration, packaging, or amplifier circuitry face less prior art density than claims on the resonator or filter topology itself.
The United States receives the largest share of filings in this dataset at 196 records, followed by China at 64 and the European Patent Office at 35. Japan, the WIPO/PCT route, and the United Kingdom each see considerably fewer filings by comparison. This distribution indicates the US is the primary venue for establishing priority in this technology, with China as the clear secondary market and Europe a distant third.
US9819329B2, assigned to Skyworks Filter Solutions Japan and published in 2017, claims a ladder-type surface acoustic wave filter using series and parallel resonators combined with a dielectric film whose temperature coefficient of frequency runs inverse to the substrate's, with film thickness varying by resonator position. This is a temperature-compensation approach built into the physical resonator structure rather than added as external circuitry. Anyone designing a ladder-type SAW filter with on-chip temperature compensation should review this claim scope closely, since it sits squarely in the field's most heavily filed IPC class, H03H.
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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.