Si Photonics Thermal/Environmental Durability Patent Snapshot
Silicon photonics thermal and environmental durability is a narrow, highly concentrated niche with just 6 patent families on record, co-dominated by International Business Machines Corporation and Marvell Asia Pte Ltd. Filing activity peaked in 2018 and has been absent in subsequent years, signalling a post-peak field with significant room for new entrants to define the next wave of durability-focused innovation.
Two filers hold the entire known corpus in a highly concentrated niche
International Business Machines Corporation and Marvell Asia Pte Ltd each hold 3 patent families, together accounting for the entirety of the top-ranked filers in this space.
The top five filers’ share of the ranked applicants visible in this query stands at 100%, confirming extreme concentration with no meaningful long tail. There is no observable tier gap between the two leaders — they are effectively co-equal in volume.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | International Business Machines Corporation | 3 | |
| 2 | Marvell Asia Pte Ltd | 3 |
IBM’s and Marvell Asia’s joint dominance suggests that thermal and environmental durability in silicon photonics has so far been treated as an internal engineering concern by a small number of vertically integrated players rather than a broadly contested technology frontier.
Filings from the most recent years are subject to standard publication lag and may not yet appear in the corpus; the absence of records after 2019 should be interpreted with that caveat in mind. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A 2018 peak followed by sustained inactivity, anchored in optical and laser IPC classes
The annual filing trend and technology composition together reveal a field that attracted a brief burst of activity around 2017–2019 and has since gone quiet, with all recorded filings concentrated in optical and laser-related IPC branches.
Annual filing trend
Filings reached a single-year peak of 3 families in 2018, with modest activity in 2017 and 2019, and no recorded filings from 2020 onward. Given standard patent publication lag, the most recent 18–24 months should be treated as potentially undercounted, but the multi-year gap beginning in 2020 is notable regardless.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
All 6 patent records map to both G02B (Optical elements and systems) and H01S (Lasers and stimulated emission), indicating that durability work in this corpus is tightly coupled to wavelength-stable laser integration. H04B (Transmission general) and H04J (Multiplex communication) each appear in half the records, pointing to a secondary emphasis on transmission-level reliability.
↗ 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.
Wavelength locker integrated with a silicon photon…
A wavelength locker integrated with a silicon photonics transmission system comprising a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate and an input via a power tap coupler to receive a fraction of a transmission signal with one or more frequencies from a primary output path of the silicon photonics transmission system. The wavelength locker further includes a… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wavelength locker integrated with a silicon photon… | 24 |
| 2 | Wavelength locker integrated with a silicon photon… | 5 |
| 3 | Electro-optical device with lateral current inject… | 1 |
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.
International Business Machines Corporation
IBM holds 3 patent families in this topic, focused on G02B (Optical elements and systems) and H01S (Lasers and stimulated emission). Their technical emphasis on wavelength stability and laser integration suggests durability work tied to coherent photonic module performance. Applicant momentum data is not available in the current evidence set, so trajectory cannot be confirmed.
families: 3Marvell Asia Pte Ltd
Marvell Asia Pte Ltd also holds 3 patent families, spanning G02B, H01S, and H04B (Transmission general), indicating a broader systems-level durability focus that extends from the optical component through to the transmission interface. This wider IPC footprint suggests Marvell Asia is addressing durability at the transceiver integration level. Applicant momentum data is not available in the current evidence set.
families: 3Frequently asked questions
The current corpus contains 6 patent families in scope for this topic.
International Business Machines Corporation and Marvell Asia Pte Ltd are the two visible assignees, each holding 3 patent families and together representing the entirety of the top-ranked filers.
The field is in a Decline stage, with annual filings easing back from a peak in 2018 and no recorded activity since 2019. Engineers should account for publication lag when interpreting the most recent years.
G02B (Optical elements and systems) and H01S (Lasers and stimulated emission) each appear across all 6 patent records. H04B (Transmission general) and H04J (Multiplex communication) appear in half the records, reflecting a secondary transmission-level focus.
Five of the six patent records are filed in the United States, with one in the United Kingdom. No filings are recorded in Asia-Pacific jurisdictions in the current corpus.
No co-applicant relationships are recorded in the current evidence. All filings have been made by individual organizations without documented cross-institutional collaboration.
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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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