Semiconductor Photoresist Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 158 records and has declined through the most recent full years, with the 2026 count still partial due to publication lag.
- Momentum has reversed across the biggest historical filers several major assignees show 0 filings in the latest year, a -100% year-on-year drop from their prior activity.
- Claim density concentrates in G03F and H01L while polymer chemistry classes like C08G and C07D carry a fraction of the volume, pointing to where formulation claims are thinner.
Filing growth compares 2021 (158 records) with 2024 (138) — 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 3,356 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 3,356 patent families filed against chemically amplified resist, metal-oxide resist and line-edge-roughness claims, spanning the core photolithography IPC classes G03F7/004, G03F7/038 and G03F7/16. Coverage runs from 2015 through a partial 2026, giving a near-complete view of how resist chemistry claims have built up and where they have started to thin out. The corpus mixes device-level filings in H01L with the underlying polymer and monomer chemistry in C08F, C07C, C07D and C08G, so both formulation claims and integration claims are represented.
Because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years in any trend chart will read lower than actual filing activity once the backlog clears. Treat the most recent year as directional, not final.
Filing trend and technology composition
The filing curve and the IPC breakdown together show a field that built out its core photolithography claims early and has since been consolidating rather than expanding.
A peak in 2021, then a pullback
Filings rose from 93 in 2017 to a peak of 158 in 2021, sat at 115 by the 2022 midpoint, and have declined since — a pattern consistent with a maturing claim space rather than one still being staked out.
Concentration in photolithography and device classes
G03F accounts for nearly the entire corpus (3,354 of 3,356 records) as the defining classification, with H01L (1,411) the largest adjacent class. Polymer chemistry classes — C08F, C07C, C07D, C08G — each carry materially fewer records, suggesting the underlying resist chemistry is less densely claimed than the lithographic process and device integration around it.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,356 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Semiconductor Photoresist Technology Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about semiconductor photoresist technology landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art in the field
Polymer for chemically amplified resist and chemically amplified resist composition containing the same
Disclosed is a polymer for use in a chemically amplified resist, sensitive to far ultraviolet rays such as KrF or ArF excimer laser, forming a photoresist pattern with low substrate dependence, good adhesion, high transparency at the relevant wavelengths, strong dry-etch resistance, and improved sensitivity, resolution and developability. The composition achieves stronger etch resistance through a maximised unsaturated aliphatic ring content and reduced line-edge roughness through an alkoxyalkyl-type substituent strategy.Filed by SK Materials Performance Co., Ltd., published 2002-11-28 as US20020177068A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO1997033198A1 | Photoresist compositions comprising polycyclic polymers with acid labile pendant groups | 534 |
| 2 | US20190163056A1 | Method of forming an enhanced unexposed photoresist layer | 462 |
| 3 | US5492793A | Photoresist composition | 458 |
| 4 | US20030157432A1 | Fluorine-containing photoresist having reactive anchors for chemical amplification and improved copolymerizat… | 367 |
| 5 | US4882245A | Photoresist composition and printed circuit boards and packages made therewith | 351 |
| 6 | US5667920A | Process for preparing a color filter | 317 |
| 7 | EP0232972A2 | Negative photoresist compositions and processes for preparing thermally stable, negative images using them | 311 |
| 8 | US6004724A | Oxime sulfonates and the use thereof as latent sulfonic acids | 301 |
| 9 | US6656837B2 | Method of eliminating photoresist poisoning in damascene applications | 288 |
| 10 | US9618846B2 | PECVD films for EUV lithography | 284 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations; treat them as a signal of historical influence, not of current commercial weight.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the trend, the IPC split and the citation table are read together.
The core claim space is filled, not growing
Filing rose steadily to 2021 and has fallen in the years since, with 2026 tracking to just 10 filings before the publication-lag backlog clears. New entrants filing broad chemically amplified resist claims now compete against a decade of dense prior art rather than open ground.
Process claims dominate over chemistry claims
G03F carries almost the entire corpus, with H01L a distant second at 1,411. The polymer-chemistry classes underneath — C08F, C07C, C07D, C08G — each sit well below 500 records, which is thin coverage relative to the process layer above them.
The historical leaders have gone quiet
Several of the largest historical assignees show zero filings in the most recent year, a full reversal from prior activity. Even the two assignees still filing show sharp declines of -79% and -82% year on year, consistent with a field being managed defensively rather than expanded.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to semiconductor photoresist technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is active, and where the gate sits
Filing activity is concentrated among a small set of materials and equipment suppliers, several of which have effectively stopped filing new resist claims in the most recent year even as a smaller group continues at reduced volume.
Device makers still filing, at reduced pace
The largest device manufacturer in the ranking continued filing into the latest year but at a fraction of its prior volume, a pattern that reads as portfolio maintenance rather than expansion.
Materials suppliers have paused new filings
Multiple materials and equipment suppliers with long filing histories in this corpus show no new filings in the latest year, suggesting their core resist chemistry claims are already staked and are being defended rather than extended.
Equipment and materials arms file jointly
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset links a lithography equipment maker with its US holding entity, at 16 shared records — evidence that resist-adjacent claims are sometimes split across corporate structure rather than a single filer.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | 3 | -79% |
| Lam Research Corporation | 2 | -82% |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | -100% |
| Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Tokyo Electron Limited | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and composition data point to a consolidating field with specific gaps; the next step is testing a concrete claim against that ground.
Check freedom-to-operate before drafting
With G03F claim density this high, a new chemically amplified resist filing needs a citation check against the most-cited prior art in this table before drafting, not after.
Run an FTO check in EurekaWatch the quiet filers
Assignees at 0% latest-year activity are not necessarily exiting the field — track their continuation and divisional filings for signs of renewed activity.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Metal-oxide resist and line-edge-roughness chemistry sit below the main claim density; a targeted search can confirm whether that gap is real or an artefact of classification.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on the photoresist patent landscape
Filing activity in this corpus is concentrated among a small group of materials suppliers and equipment makers with long histories in chemically amplified resist chemistry, including major device manufacturers and specialty chemical companies. Several of these same assignees show zero filings in the most recent year, which means the current leader by cumulative count is not necessarily the most active filer today. Anyone assessing leadership should look at both the cumulative ranking and the recent-year momentum figures, since they tell different stories about who is still investing.
No, filings peaked in 2021 at 158 records and have declined since, with the 2022 midpoint at 115 and the most recent year tracking well below that. Some of the apparent 2025-2026 decline is a publication-lag artefact, since filings typically take about 18 months to appear in the record, but the multi-year downward trend predates that lag effect. The overall pattern reads as a maturing field rather than one still in a land-grab phase.
A chemically amplified resist uses a photoacid generator to trigger a catalytic chemical reaction upon exposure, amplifying a small photon dose into a larger chemical change and enabling the sensitivity needed for deep-UV and EUV lithography. This mechanism underpins most of the G03F-classified filings in this dataset, which is why photolithography process claims so heavily outnumber the underlying polymer chemistry classes like C08F and C08G. The imbalance suggests the process-level implementation is more densely claimed than some of the specific chemical formulations feeding into it.
The IPC composition shows heavy concentration in G03F and H01L, while polymer-chemistry classes such as C08G (condensation polymers) and C07D (heterocyclic compounds) carry a much smaller share of the corpus. Metal-oxide resist formulations and line-edge-roughness reduction chemistry are named directly in the search criteria but appear under-represented relative to the mainstream chemically amplified resist claims. These branches are worth a targeted freedom-to-operate check rather than an assumption that the space is closed, since lower filing density can reflect either genuine openness or narrower classification practice.
Citation counts accumulate over time within a searched corpus, so older records such as the 1990s-era photoresist composition patents have simply had more years and more subsequent filings in which to be cited. This makes citation count a better signal of historical influence on how the field developed than of current commercial relevance. A more recent filing with fewer citations may still be more directly relevant to a 2026 freedom-to-operate question than a highly-cited filing from three decades ago.
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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.