Semiconductor Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 28.4% of all filings sit with just five assignees, out of 72,548 records in scope — a concentrated top with a long tail below it.
- Filings fell 34% from the 2021 peak of 1,279 to 846 in 2024, the last year the data treats as complete.
- G06F and H01L together anchor the field at 13.4% and 10.7% of records respectively, while classes like G11C sit under 2%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,279 records) with 2024 (846) — 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 72,548 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape draws on 72,548 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, spanning core semiconductor device architecture, electronic design automation, lithography, power and compound semiconductors, chiplet integration, AI accelerators and wafer metrology. The search string binds general semiconductor and integrated-circuit language to these specific technical branches, so the set captures both foundational device patents and the tooling built around them. Patent families are the fairer unit for comparing filing volume across jurisdictions, since a single invention can generate several published documents.
Filing activity is concentrated at the top of the assignee ranking but thins quickly after the leading names, and the technology composition shows a small number of IPC subclasses carrying most of the volume. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one or two years in any trend chart will understate real filing activity — treat 2024 as the last complete year of record.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 72,548 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how it distributes across IPC subclasses. Both use the full record set as the denominator.
A 2021 peak, then a pullback
Filings rose from 971 in 2017 to a peak of 1,279 in 2021, then declined to 846 by 2024 — a 34% drop over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in the chart are still filling in and should not be read as continued decline.
Two subclasses carry the field
G06F (electric digital data processing) and H01L (semiconductor devices) each cover more than a tenth of all records, at 13.4% and 10.7% respectively. Every other subclass in scope, from H10D general semiconductor devices at 3.5% down to G11C static and digital memories at 1.3%, sits well below that — because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read individually, not summed.
Shares are the percentage of the 72,548 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Semiconductors & Microelectronics Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about semiconductors & microelectronics patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim and the most-cited prior art
Manufacturing process integrating high-density and high-performance logic circuit portions on one chip
US6451653B2 describes a process for integrating, in a single semiconductor chip, a high-density integrated circuit components portion alongside a high-performance logic integrated circuit components portion. The method places an insulated, silicidated polysilicon layer selectively doped for the logic components, then defines gate structures for both the high-density and logic portions using a hard mask over the silicidated layer.Filed by Micron Technology; published 2002-09-17.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080182358A1 | Process for atomic layer deposition | 4,311 |
| 2 | US20130041235A1 | Flexible and Stretchable Electronic Systems for Epidermal Electronics | 855 |
| 3 | US20050023656A1 | Vertical system integration | 785 |
| 4 | US20070208233A1 | Integrated physiologic monitoring systems and methods | 648 |
| 5 | US7972875B2 | Optical systems fabricated by printing-based assembly | 623 |
| 6 | US9214555B2 | Barrier layer for FinFET channels | 609 |
| 7 | US20040262635A1 | Three-dimensional integrated circuit structure and method of making same | 589 |
| 8 | US5610635A | Printer ink cartridge with memory storage capacity | 570 |
| 9 | US6596079B1 | III-V nitride substrate boule and method of making and using the same | 560 |
| 10 | US5714768A | Second-layer phase change memory array on top of a logic device | 558 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records, so treat this table as a signal of influence on the field rather than a ranking of current importance.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC composition are read together.
The top of the field is dense, but the tail is long
The five leading assignees hold 28.4% of all 72,548 records in scope, and the top ten hold 39.5%. That still leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, which is where freedom-to-operate work needs the most care since it cannot rely on watching a handful of names.
A cooling filing rate, not a collapsing field
Filings fell from a 2021 peak of 1,279 to 846 in 2024. Several of the largest historical filers show year-on-year drops in the most recent (partial) year, but that year is still filling in under the usual 18-month publication lag, so it reads as a slowdown in new filings rather than retreat from the field.
Two IPC subclasses hold most of the occupied claim space
G06F (digital data processing) and H01L (semiconductor devices) together anchor the dataset, each covering more than a tenth of all 72,548 records. High density in these classes means claim space there is occupied and contested, not that the underlying technology is mature or finished.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to semiconductors & microelectronics patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders span device manufacturers, foundries and EDA tool vendors, but momentum has cooled across nearly all of them in the most recent year, and several specific sub-areas remain thinly claimed.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 7,002 records, more than double the fifth-place figure of 2,074 and five times the tenth-place figure of 1,397 — a steep drop-off that marks a genuine leader rather than a tightly bunched top group.
Even the largest historical filers slowed sharply
Several of the most active assignees show year-on-year drops of 90% or more in the latest year, with some down to single-digit or zero filings. Given the 18-month publication lag, this is best read as an incomplete year rather than a retreat, but it does mean recent-year rankings should not be taken at face value.
Corporate-family filing is the main form of collaboration visible here
The strongest co-assignee links are between a parent and its regional subsidiaries rather than between independent companies — the pattern looks like internal corporate structuring for jurisdictional filing, not cross-company R&D partnership.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) | 16 | -90% |
| Altera Corporation | 1 | -90% |
| Intel Corporation | 1 | -94% |
| Rambus Inc. | 1 | -93% |
| International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) | 0 | -100% |
| Synopsys, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Cadence Design Systems, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Mentor Graphics Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The dataset points to a field with an entrenched leader, a cooling filing rate, and specific under-claimed branches. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper than the summary view.
Check freedom-to-operate against the dense classes
G06F and H01L carry the highest record density in this set. Before filing into either, map the specific claims held by the ranked leaders rather than relying on class-level counts.
Explore the full assignee rankingWatch the under-claimed branches
Wafer metrology, compound semiconductor power devices and chiplet interconnect integration show comparatively low record counts against the core classes — worth a closer novelty search before assuming the space is open.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked field clearly, with 7,002 records against a fifth-place figure of 2,074 and a tenth-place figure of 1,397. That gap indicates a genuine leader rather than a tightly bunched top group. The next tier includes major foundries, chipmakers and EDA tool vendors, but no single company approaches the leader's volume in this dataset.
Filings peaked in 2021 at 1,279 and fell to 846 by 2024, a 34% decline over that span, and 2024 is the most recent year the data treats as complete. Years after 2024 look lower still, but that is expected: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one or two years always understate real activity. Read the 2021-to-2024 figures as the trend, not the partial later years.
G06F, covering electric digital data processing, accounts for 13.4% of the 72,548 records in scope, and H01L, semiconductor devices, accounts for 10.7%. Every other subclass in this dataset, including general semiconductor devices (H10D) and static and digital memories (G11C), sits below 4%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages are not mutually exclusive shares of one pie.
The IPC composition in this dataset shows several branches with comparatively low record counts next to the dense G06F and H01L clusters, including wafer metrology tooling, compound semiconductor power devices, and chiplet interconnect integration. Lower filing density in a branch means claim space there is less occupied, not that the technology is unproven. A targeted novelty and freedom-to-operate search in those specific branches is the right next step before committing to a filing strategy.
The top five assignees hold 28.4% of all 72,548 records in scope, and the top ten hold 39.5%. That leaves a majority of filings distributed across a long tail of the ranked field, which includes 100 companies in total. For freedom-to-operate purposes, this means diligence cannot stop at the handful of largest filers — the tail carries real volume too.
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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.