Semiconductor Epitaxy Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2017 peak. 195 records filed in 2017 against 146 at the 2022 midpoint, with the most recent year still filling in due to publication lag.
- H01L and C30B dominate the claim map. 3,943 and 2,210 records respectively, meaning most contested ground sits at the intersection of device structure and crystal-growth method claims.
- Momentum has stalled even among the largest filers. Applied Materials shows -93% YoY in the latest year and several long-time filers, including IBM and Shin-Etsu, show zero filings in the same period.
Filing growth compares 2021 (144 records) with 2024 (125) — 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 4,722 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the epitaxy patent record shows
Semiconductor epitaxy covers the methods and apparatus used to grow crystalline layers on a substrate — selective epitaxial growth, strained silicon and SiGe epitaxy, and MOCVD-based deposition among them. The search underlying this page pulls 4,722 patent families filed between 2015 and 2026 across the IPC classes that anchor this field: C30B25/02 (crystal growth apparatus), H01L21/02 (semiconductor device processing) and the C23C16 coating and surface-deposition group.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 and has trended down or flat since, with the 2022 midpoint sitting well below that peak. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years in any chart will read lower than the true filing volume once the backlog clears.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across the IPC subclasses that define the field.
A peak, then a plateau
195 filings in 2017 fell to 146 by 2022, a decline rather than a plateau at the midpoint, and the curve continues downward toward the present, partial year. This is consistent with a technology whose core claim positions were staked out in the mid-2010s rather than one still in a land-grab phase.
Device claims outweigh pure crystal-growth claims
H01L (semiconductor devices) appears in 3,943 records against 2,210 for C30B (crystal growth) and 1,201 for C23C (coating/deposition). The gap suggests most recent filing activity frames epitaxy as a step inside a device or transistor claim rather than as standalone crystal-growth apparatus or process innovation — the latter ground was more heavily claimed earlier.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,722 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Semiconductor Epitaxy Technology Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about semiconductor epitaxy technology landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this corpus
US9797067B2 — Selective epitaxial growth method and film forming apparatus
A selective epitaxial growth method includes preparing a target object including a single crystal substrate in which an epitaxial growth region is partitioned by a suppression film, then growing the epitaxial layer through alternating source-gas supply and deposit-removal steps under differing pressures until a target thickness is reached.Filed by Tokyo Electron Limited; published 2017-10-24.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6066204A | High pressure MOCVD reactor system | 852 |
| 2 | US6475869B1 | Method of forming a double gate transistor having an epitaxial silicon/germanium channel region | 801 |
| 3 | US5221556A | Gas injectors for reaction chambers in CVD systems | 772 |
| 4 | US5246500A | Vapor phase epitaxial growth apparatus | 605 |
| 5 | US20010019900A1 | Semiconductor manufacturing method and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus | 527 |
| 6 | US9093514B2 | Strained and uniform doping technique for FINFETs | 524 |
| 7 | US20030124820A1 | Systems and methods for epitaxially depositing films on a semiconductor substrate | 492 |
| 8 | US20160362813A1 | Injector for semiconductor epitaxy growth | 487 |
| 9 | US6492216B1 | Method of forming a transistor with a strained channel | 475 |
| 10 | US20090223441A1 | High volume delivery system for gallium trichloride | 448 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings, which have simply had more time to accumulate citations. Treat them as markers of foundational influence, 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 numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns in the data matter more to a filing decision than the raw counts on their own.
The land-grab phase is over
Filings dropped from a 2017 peak of 195 to a midpoint of 146 in 2022, and the trend continues downward. New entrants filing broad, foundational epitaxy claims now compete against a decade of prior art rather than an open field.
Device-integration claims dominate
H01L records outnumber C30B crystal-growth records by nearly 2:1, indicating that epitaxy is increasingly claimed as one step within a broader device or transistor architecture rather than as a standalone process innovation.
The US remains the primary filing venue
United States receiving-office volume is roughly 3.5x Japan's and nearly 4x China's, with EPO and UK filings smaller still. A US-first filing strategy still reaches the bulk of documented activity, though China's 561 filings show a meaningful secondary venue.
Collaboration is rare and concentrated
Only ten co-assignee pairings appear in the dataset. The strongest, between Tsinghua University and Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry), spans 48 shared families — an outlier against pairs in the low teens, suggesting most epitaxy IP is developed and held by single entities.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to semiconductor epitaxy technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and momentum
The named assignees span equipment makers, foundries and materials suppliers, but recent-year activity has slowed across nearly all of them — a signal that current competitive attention has shifted elsewhere or moved into trade-secret territory rather than fresh filing.
Applied Materials pulls back
Applied Materials shows only 1 filing in the latest year against a -93% year-on-year decline, the sharpest drop among the tracked assignees despite historically dense filing in deposition equipment.
TSMC holds steady at a low level
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shows 1 filing in the latest year with 0% year-on-year change — neither growing nor retreating, consistent with maintenance-level filing rather than an active push.
Several historic filers have gone quiet
IBM, Shin-Etsu Handotai, Soitec and NEC all show zero filings in the most recent year. Given publication lag, some of this understates true activity, but the pattern is broad enough across large, historically active filers to suggest genuine deceleration.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 1 | -93% |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | 1 | 0% |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | — |
| Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Soitec | 0 | — |
| NEC Corporation | 0 | — |
| SUMCO Corporation | 0 | — |
| Fujitsu Limited | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The trend and assignee data point to specific next checks rather than a single conclusion.
Check the under-claimed branches against your own roadmap
The gate chips above flag sub-areas with thinner filing density than the core device-integration claim space. A targeted search against your own process steps will show whether that thinness is real white space or simply an artifact of this search string.
Explore in EurekaWatch for filings behind the publication lag
The last one to two years of the trend chart will fill in as pending applications publish. Re-checking the most recent year in six to twelve months will give a truer read on whether the decline since 2017 is continuing or has bottomed out.
Explore in EurekaLook past citation counts for current relevance
The most-cited records in this corpus are, by nature of citation accumulation, older filings. Cross-reference them against active assignee momentum before assuming they still define the competitive frontier.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions about the epitaxy patent landscape
The dataset tracks assignee activity across equipment makers, foundries and materials suppliers rather than a single dominant holder. Recent-year momentum data shows filers like Applied Materials and TSMC still active but at low volume, while historically large filers such as IBM and Shin-Etsu Handotai show zero filings in the latest year. This suggests the field's largest historical holders have shifted to a maintenance posture rather than active expansion, so 'most patents overall' and 'most active right now' point to different companies.
Filing volume peaked in 2017 at 195 records and had fallen to 146 by the 2022 midpoint, with the trend continuing downward toward the present. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the very latest year always understates true activity, so the decline is likely somewhat less steep than the raw chart shows. Even accounting for that lag, the multi-year trend points to a maturing rather than an accelerating filing environment.
The IPC composition shows H01L (semiconductor devices) and C30B (crystal growth) carrying the bulk of filings, while narrower branches like strained SiGe channel epitaxy for gate-all-around architectures, low-thermal-budget selective epitaxy for 3D memory stacks, and epitaxial lift-off for heterogeneous integration show comparatively thinner density. Any of these is worth a dedicated freedom-to-operate search rather than relying on the aggregate numbers, since thin density in a broad search string can mask dense claiming within a narrower sub-area.
The receiving-office data shows the United States with 2,175 filings against 622 for Japan and 561 for China, with Europe, WIPO and the UK smaller still. This reflects both the concentration of major epitaxy equipment and device manufacturers historically filing first in the US, and the US market's importance for semiconductor device sales. It does not mean activity is absent elsewhere — China's 561 filings represent a substantial secondary venue worth tracking separately.
US6066204A, covering a high-pressure MOCVD reactor system, holds the highest citation count in this corpus at 852, but citation counts accumulate over time and structurally favour older filings. A high citation count signals that a patent shaped a lot of subsequent filing and thinking in the field, not that its claims are the ones most likely to block a current product. Any freedom-to-operate assessment should check the current legal status and claim scope of such a patent directly rather than relying on citation rank as a proxy for risk.
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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.