Si Photonics Standardized PDK/Chiplet Patent Snapshot
The silicon photonics standardized PDK/chiplet space is highly concentrated, with Advanced Micro Foundry dominating a still-small but rapidly expanding corpus of 16 patent families. The field is in a growth phase on a multi-year basis, though annual volume has eased from its 2022 peak, and publication lag means the most recent filings remain undercounted.
Advanced Micro Foundry leads a highly concentrated, nascent field
Advanced Micro Foundry Pte Ltd holds the visible position with 9 patent families, placing it far ahead of any other filer. Teramount Ltd and Marvell Asia Pte Ltd each hold 2 patent families, with the remaining applicants each contributing 1.
The top five filers account for 83% of the combined total among the ranked applicants visible in this query, signaling extreme concentration in a corpus that is still early in its commercialization arc. The gap between the leader and the second tier is substantial — Advanced Micro Foundry holds more than four times the families of any single challenger.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Advanced Micro Foundry Pte Ltd | 9 | |
| 2 | Teramount Ltd | 2 | |
| 3 | Marvell Asia Pte Ltd | 2 | |
| 4 | Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Ltd | 1 | |
| 5 | Fang Yu | 1 | |
| 6 | Accelink Technologies Co Ltd | 1 | |
| 7 | Xu Yan | 1 | |
| 8 | Cai Yuezhang | 1 |
This degree of concentration in a Growth-stage field implies that Advanced Micro Foundry is actively shaping the IP evidence snapshot around foundry-accessible PDK and chiplet integration, while challengers and new entrants are beginning to stake adjacent claims. The small absolute corpus size means that even modest new filing programs could rapidly alter the ranking.
The most recent 18–24 months of filings are likely undercounted due to typical patent publication lag; the corpus should be treated as a conservative floor rather than a complete picture of current activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Rapid multi-year growth driven by optical elements, with modulation technology a close second
Filing activity in this space was essentially absent before 2021 and then surged sharply in 2022, reflecting the field’s early Growth stage. Technology composition is dominated by optical elements and systems, with optical control and modulation constituting a significant secondary cluster.
Annual filing trend
Zero filings were recorded from 2017 through 2020, followed by a sharp ramp to 8 families in 2022 — the peak year to date. Subsequent years show lower annual counts, but this is consistent with publication lag rather than a real retreat; the multi-year recent window still sits well above the prior period. The 2025–2026 figures should be treated as provisional minimums.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
G02B (Optical elements and systems) covers all 16 patent records in the corpus, establishing it as the universal technical foundation. G02F (Optical control and modulation) appears across 10 records, reflecting the centrality of modulators and switches in chiplet interfaces. H04B (Transmission, general) covers 3 records, while G01B (Measuring length and dimensions) and G03F (Photolithography and photomechanics) each appear in 2 records — the two sparsest branches in the mix.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
A hybrid silicon photonics modulator and method to…
The present disclosure relates generally to a hybrid modulator and methods of integrating hybrid materials, such as lithium-niobate-on-insulator, onto silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers for hybrid silicon photonics integration, while maintaining compatibility with standard silicon photonics components. In particular, the silicon on insulator (SOI) and… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A hybrid silicon photonics modulator and method to… | 5 |
| 2 | Temperature insensitive distributed strain monitor… | 3 |
| 3 | Silicon photonic multiplexer and de-multiplexer | 2 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Advanced Micro Foundry Pte Ltd
Advanced Micro Foundry holds 9 patent families — more than the rest of the ranked field combined. Its technology emphasis spans both G02B 6 (optical elements and systems) and G02F 1 (optical control and modulation) equally across its 9 filings, consistent with a foundry building a comprehensive PDK covering passive routing and active modulator elements. Its momentum is classified as a new entrant with 8 recent families, confirming that essentially all of its portfolio was built in the current filing window.
families: 9Teramount Ltd
Teramount Ltd holds 2 patent families and differentiates from the leader by combining G02B 6 (optical elements and systems) coverage with G03F 7 (photolithography and photomechanics) — the only ranked applicant with a photolithography-linked focus. This suggests an approach oriented toward process-level integration rather than pure device or system design. Teramount’s momentum is also classified as a new entrant, with 1 recent family in the evidence window.
families: 2Frequently asked questions
The current evidence covers 16 patent families in scope. This is a small but growing corpus; given that the field only began generating filings from 2021 onward and publication lag affects the most recent years, the true current total is likely higher than this count reflects.
Advanced Micro Foundry Pte Ltd is the clear leader with 9 patent families, representing more than half the total corpus. Its technology focus spans both optical elements and systems (G02B 6) and optical control and modulation (G02F 1) — consistent with a foundry building a comprehensive standardized PDK covering both passive and active chiplet building blocks.
The field is classified as Growth stage. Recent three-year filing activity sits well above the prior three-year baseline, confirming multi-year expansion. Annual volume has eased from its 2022 peak, and the most recent filing years are further understated by publication lag, so the growth trajectory should not be read as reversal.
WIPO PCT leads with 4 patent records, followed by Taiwan and the United States each with 3, and Europe (EPO) with 2. Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore each have 1 record. The PCT-first approach suggests filers are preserving broad geographic optionality rather than committing early to a single national market.
G01B (Measuring length and dimensions) and G03F (Photolithography and photomechanics) each appear in only 2 patent records, representing a 6% share of the corpus each. Both are plausibly adjacent to PDK standardization workflows — metrology for process control and photolithography rules for design-rule encoding — but are currently sparsely covered relative to the visible optical elements and modulation branches.
The only co-applicant relationships observed in the evidence are among three individual inventors — Xu Yan, Cai Yuezhang, and Fang Yu — each co-filing 1 family with the others. No institutional cross-organization co-filing between foundries, fabless companies, or systems integrators has been recorded in this corpus to date.
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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.
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