Semiconductor Epitaxy Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing already peaked. 2017 was the high point at 46 families; by the 2022 midpoint annual filing had fallen to 12, and the trend has not recovered since.
- Crystal growth claims trail device claims by more than 2:1. H01L records (492) outnumber C30B crystal-growth records (223), showing most protection sits on device integration rather than the growth process itself.
- The US dominates filing venue by a wide margin. 356 US receiving-office records versus 71 in China and 48 at the EPO — a filer betting on Europe or China alone is working a much thinner set of prior art.
Filing growth compares 2021 (19 records) with 2024 (16) — 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 571 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families at the intersection of epitaxial growth and deposition with materials claims specific to SiGe source-drain structures, III-V epitaxial materials, and strain engineering. The IPC scope is anchored on H01L29/165, C30B29 and H01L21/02 — device-level strained-layer transistors, bulk and thin-film crystal growth, and semiconductor manufacturing processes generally. It is a materials-and-process view of epitaxy, not a broad device landscape.
The corpus spans 571 published families from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the final one to two years in any trend chart will always look thinner than the filing activity that eventually lands there.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 571 families: how filing activity moved year over year, and how those families distribute across the IPC subclasses that make up the epitaxy stack.
A peak in 2017, then a plateau below it
Annual filings hit 46 in 2017 and had fallen to 12 by 2022, the midpoint of the window. That is a declining-to-flat pattern rather than a technology still building momentum — new entrants are filing against a base that is no longer expanding.
Device claims outweigh crystal-growth claims
H01L (semiconductor devices) covers 492 records and C30B (crystal growth) covers 223, with H10P and H10D each contributing over 150. C23C surface deposition, H01S lasers, and B82B nanostructures are minor branches by comparison — most of the drafting effort protects how epitaxial material is integrated into a device, not the growth chemistry itself.
Shares are the percentage of the 571 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Semiconductor Epitaxy Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about semiconductor epitaxy advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this space
Method providing an epitaxial growth having a reduction in defects and resulting structure
The filing discloses an opening for epitaxial growth with an associated projection that reduces the contact-area size on the substrate where growth begins. Epitaxial material grows vertically from the contact area and laterally over the projection, which acts as a stress-relaxation region that reduces dislocations and stacking faults at the side edges of the grown material.Filed by Micron Technology in 2015, this record illustrates a defect-reduction approach built around substrate geometry rather than a new epitaxial material — a common pattern in this dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US9093514B2 | Strained and uniform doping technique for FINFETs | 524 |
| 2 | US20160133628A1 | Semiconductor structure and device and methods of forming same using selective epitaxial process | 484 |
| 3 | US10361201B2 | Semiconductor structure and device formed using selective epitaxial process | 411 |
| 4 | US6447604B1 | Method for achieving improved epitaxy quality (surface texture and defect density) on free-standing (aluminum… | 353 |
| 5 | US5308788A | Temperature controlled process for the epitaxial growth of a film of material | 332 |
| 6 | US9929055B2 | Method to grow thin epitaxial films at low temperature | 313 |
| 7 | US6146457A | Thermal mismatch compensation to produce free standing substrates by epitaxial deposition | 254 |
| 8 | US20140252412A1 | Strained and Uniform Doping Technique for FINFETs | 244 |
| 9 | US6218280B1 | Method and apparatus for producing group-III nitrides | 240 |
| 10 | US6037202A | Method for growing an epitaxial layer of material using a high temperature initial growth phase and a low tem… | 153 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older filings are structurally favoured. Treat this table as a map of foundational, frequently-referenced claims rather than a ranking of current 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 patterns stand out once the raw counts are read against filing venue and technology split.
Protection is concentrated in the US
The US receiving office accounts for 356 of the records tracked here, roughly five times the 71 filed in China and well ahead of the 48 at the EPO. A defensive filing strategy built only around China or Europe is working against a materially smaller set of prior art than one built around the US.
The peak has already passed
Filing peaked at 46 families in 2017 and had roughly halved twice over by the 2022 midpoint. That decline, combined with several major assignees showing 0 filings and -100% year-over-year in the most recent complete year, suggests the core claim space around today's dominant approaches is largely staked out.
Device integration outweighs growth chemistry
Device-level claims (H01L) outnumber crystal-growth claims (C30B) by more than 2:1, and secondary device subclasses H10P and H10D each carry over 150 records. Laser applications (H01S, 15 records) and nanostructures (B82B, 7 records) remain thin branches relative to the mainstream device work.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to semiconductor epitaxy advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where the field is thinning
The named assignees with the largest recent-year momentum are, almost without exception, showing zero filings in the most recent complete year — a sign that even leading holders are consolidating existing claims rather than expanding them.
Leaders have gone quiet on new filing
IBM, TSMC, Applied Materials, Intel, and China Electronics Technology Group's 55th Research Institute all show zero filings in the latest tracked year, with several posting a -100% year-over-year drop. This does not mean these organisations have exited the field — it means their claim positions are largely set and current activity is elsewhere in the portfolio.
Joint filing is rare and mostly single-instance
Only seven co-assignee pairs appear across 571 families, and the strongest pair recorded just three joint filings. Most collaboration signal in this dataset is a single instance rather than a sustained partnership, which limits what can be inferred about formal technology-sharing arrangements.
Foundational patents skew toward FinFET-era strain work
The most-cited record in the corpus concerns strained and uniform doping for FinFETs, filed well before the most recent filing window. High citation counts here mark historical influence on subsequent drafting, not necessarily where current commercial activity sits.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | — |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | 0 | — |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Intel Corporation | 0 | — |
| China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 55th Research Institute | 0 | -100% |
| Kromis, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| CBL Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Micron Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to a mature, US-concentrated claim base with declining new filing. Two lines of follow-up make sense before committing a filing budget.
Check the under-claimed IPC branches against your own roadmap
H01S, B82B and C23C carry a fraction of the records that H01L does. If your work touches laser-integrated epitaxial structures or nanostructure-scale growth, that thinner prior art base may leave room to claim.
Explore white space in EurekaVerify freedom-to-operate against the most-cited records
The five most-cited patents in this corpus, several tied to FinFET-era strain and selective epitaxial process claims, are the ones most likely to have descendant continuations still in force.
Run a citation check in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The assignees with the largest historical filing volumes in this dataset include IBM, TSMC, Applied Materials, Intel, and China Electronics Technology Group's 55th Research Institute, alongside Micron, GlobalFoundries and Kromis. Nearly all of these organisations show zero filings in the most recent complete year, which points to established rather than expanding claim positions. A freedom-to-operate check should still start with these names because their portfolios span the FinFET and strained-layer eras that much later work builds on.
No. Filing peaked at 46 families in 2017, had fallen to 12 by the 2022 midpoint, and several leading assignees show -100% year-over-year in the latest complete year. This is a flat-to-declining trend rather than a technology in an early growth phase. It suggests the mainstream claim space around current strain-engineering and source-drain epitaxial approaches is largely occupied, though newer sub-branches remain comparatively open.
The United States receiving office carries 356 of the 571 records in this corpus, roughly five times the volume filed in China and well over seven times the UK total. Europe (EPO) and WIPO PCT filings sit in the tens rather than hundreds. A filing strategy limited to China or Europe alone will be working against materially less prior art than one that accounts for the US position first.
This Micron Technology filing covers a method for reducing defects during epitaxial growth using a substrate opening with an associated projection that shrinks the initial contact area and provides lateral stress relaxation. It is a substrate-geometry approach to defect reduction, not a claim on a specific epitaxial material composition. Work using different mechanisms to reduce dislocations and stacking faults, such as buffer-layer grading or alternative nucleation geometries, would need a separate claim-by-claim comparison rather than being assumed blocked.
By IPC subclass, laser applications (H01S, 15 records), nanostructures (B82B, 7 records) and surface deposition coatings (C23C, 48 records) carry far fewer records than the dominant device-integration subclass H01L (492 records). These thinner branches are worth checking against a specific technical roadmap, since low record counts can reflect genuine white space or simply narrower commercial interest — the underlying abstracts need to be read before concluding either way.
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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.