SiC Loss & Efficiency Patent Landscape 2026
The SiC loss and efficiency space is Japanese-industrial-led and moderately concentrated, with Toshiba, Fuji Electric, and Sumitomo Electric holding the top three positions among 750 patent families in scope. Activity plateaued near its 2021 and 2023 peaks and has eased, signalling a maturing field where device-structure differentiation remains the dominant competitive axis.
Toshiba leads a Japanese-dominated, moderately concentrated field
Toshiba heads the applicant ranking with 133 patent records, followed by Fuji Electric (117) and Sumitomo Electric Industries (86), establishing a clear Japanese industrial tier at the front of the field.
The top five filers collectively account for 38% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, indicating moderate concentration: the lead group is influential but not so dominant as to foreclose competition from challengers such as Wolfspeed (62 patent records) and Denso (38 patent records).
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toshiba Corporation | 133 | |
| 2 | Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. | 117 | |
| 3 | Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | 86 | |
| 4 | Rohm Co., Ltd. | 67 | |
| 5 | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 63 | |
| 6 | Wolfspeed, Inc. | 62 | |
| 7 | National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) | 46 | |
| 8 | Denso Corporation | 38 | |
| 9 | Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. | 36 | |
| 10 | Shanghai Hestia Power Inc. | 27 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | General Electric Company | 26 | |
| 12 | Hitachi, Ltd. | 24 | |
| 13 | UNIV OF ELECTRONICS SCI & TECH OF CHINA | 18 | |
| 14 | Semicon Components Industries LLC | 18 | |
| 15 | Panasonic Holdings Corporation | 17 | |
| 16 | TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS DEVICES & STORAGE CORPORARTION | 17 | |
| 17 | Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. | 15 | |
| 18 | Renesas Electronics Corporation | 15 | |
| 19 | Hyundai Motor Company | 15 | |
| 20 | Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. | 15 |
The sustained positions of established device makers suggest that SiC loss and efficiency IP is deeply embedded in process and device know-how accumulated over many years, raising the bar for new entrants seeking to compete on core MOSFET and Schottky-diode architectures.
The most recent 18–24 months of data are subject to publication lag and under-represent actual filing activity; apparent drops in 2024–2026 should not be read as a real decline. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing volume plateaued after 2021; device-layer IPC classes dominate
Two charts frame the competitive dynamics: the annual filing trend reveals how activity has evolved since 2017, while the technology-composition breakdown shows where patenting effort is concentrated across IPC branches.
Annual filing trend
Filings held steady in the high-80s from 2017–2020, surged to 113 records in both 2021 and 2023, then eased to 81 in 2022 and again in 2024. The 2025–2026 figures are heavily under-counted due to publication lag and should not be interpreted as a structural decline.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01L (Semiconductor devices) dominates with 1,225 records, reflecting the field’s focus on SiC MOSFET, diode, and JFET device structures. H10D (Semiconductor devices, general) adds 269 records, and H02M (Power conversion) contributes 151 records — the only substantial systems-level branch, indicating that most innovation remains at the device rather than converter level.
↗ 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.
Control method for hybrid parallel integrated powe…
Disclosed is a control method for a hybrid parallel integrated power supply. Under the condition of a 2:1 current ratio between a Si-based inverter and a SiC-based inverter, an optimal power ratio between the two inverters is obtained by reducing a power loss of a fundamental wave component on the Si-based inverter. Based on the fitting for effective values… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Power MOSFET in silicon carbide | 421 |
| 2 | Silicon carbide semiconductor device and silicon c… | 413 |
| 3 | Silicon carbide power MOSFET with floating field r… | 358 |
| 4 | Three-Terminal Gate-Controlled Semiconductor Switc… | 296 |
| 5 | Silicon carbide semiconductor device and manufactu… | 276 |
| 6 | Silicon carbide semiconductor device | 185 |
| 7 | Vertical JFET limited silicon carbide power metal-… | 162 |
| 8 | Silicon carbide power metal-oxide semiconductor fi… | 162 |
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.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural lenses — maturity, concentration, collaboration, and geography — each carry distinct implications for teams allocating R&D budgets or planning freedom-to-operate positions.
Field is at maturity, annual volume eased from its 2021 peak
The lifecycle is assessed as Maturity, with annual filings having plateaued near their peak. The multi-year corpus of 750 patent families represents an accumulated body of prior art that requires thorough freedom-to-operate analysis before entering core device architectures. Incremental differentiation — gate-oxide engineering, contact resistance, edge termination — is the residual battleground.
Maturity stageTop five hold 38% of the hundred largest filers’ share — concentrated but not closed
The top five applicants (Toshiba, Fuji Electric, Sumitomo Electric, Rohm, and Mitsubishi Electric) collectively represent 38% of the hundred largest filers’ combined patent records. A second tier — Wolfspeed, Denso, Nissan Motor, Shanghai Hestia Power, and General Electric — demonstrates that non-Japanese players retain meaningful positions. The gap between tier one and tier two is meaningful but not prohibitive for focused challengers.
Moderate concentrationNational lab partnerships anchor the most active co-filing relationships
The most frequent co-filing pairs are Toshiba with Toshiba Electronics Devices & Storage (15 joint records) and Fuji Electric with AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 12 records). Denso and Toyota Motor appear together on 12 records, and AIST also collaborates with Sanyo Electric (11 records). These pairings suggest that government-linked research institutes serve as technology bridges between large industrials, a pattern that can be leveraged by new entrants seeking academic or national-lab partnerships.
Industry–lab alliancesUnited States leads filings; China is a growing second jurisdiction
The United States accounts for 720 patent records, making it the primary filing jurisdiction by a wide margin. China follows with 225 records, then Europe (EPO) at 139 and Japan at 109. The U.S. dominance reflects both the patent strategies of Japanese majors filing internationally and the presence of U.S.-based players such as Wolfspeed and General Electric. China’s position signals rising domestic ambition in SiC devices.
U.S. primary; China risingGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Toshiba Corporation | Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation | 15 |
| Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. | National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) | 12 |
| Denso Corporation | Toyota Motor Corporation | 12 |
| National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) | Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. | 11 |
| Denso Corporation | Toyota Central R&D Labs, Inc. | 7 |
| Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | Nara Institute of Science and Technology | 3 |
| Toshiba Corporation | National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) | 2 |
| Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 2 |
| Rohm Co., Ltd. | Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. | 2 |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) | 2 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Toshiba and Fuji Electric lead on device-layer IP; both showing recent easing
The top two filers hold commanding positions built on H01L semiconductor-device patents, but recent momentum data show both have moderated their filing pace, opening space for challengers to close the gap.
Toshiba
Toshiba leads with 133 patent records, concentrated in H01L 29 (127 records) and H01L 21 (75 records) — the device-structure and fabrication-process classes at the core of SiC MOSFET technology. Recent filing momentum is down 33% versus the prior period, consistent with the field’s overall maturation rather than a strategic withdrawal.
patent records: 133Wolfspeed
Wolfspeed holds 62 patent records and is one of the few non-Japanese players in the top six. Its technology focus spans H01L 29 (58 records) and H01L 21 (41 records), closely mirroring the device-layer emphasis of the Japanese majors. Momentum is classified as a new entrant in the recent window, suggesting an accelerating filing trajectory from a previously smaller base.
patent records: 62| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Toshiba Corporation | 24 | ▼ -33% |
| Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. | 16 | ▼ -20% |
| Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
| Rohm Co., Ltd. | 7 | ▼ -50% |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 4 | ▼ -71% |
| Wolfspeed, Inc. | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
| National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
| GeneSiC Semiconductor Inc. | 4 | ▼ -88% |
Power-conversion systems and gate-drive logic are under-served relative to device IP
While device-layer IPC classes dominate the corpus, several adjacent branches have comparatively sparse coverage, representing areas where incremental IP could complement existing device portfolios or enable system-level differentiation.
H02M · Power conversion (AC/DC etc.)
H02M accounts for 151 patent records — substantial in absolute terms but only 8% of the technology-composition total, well below the device-layer dominance. Given that SiC switching losses are only realised as system efficiency gains through converter topology and control, this branch represents a gap between device know-how and application-level IP. Teams with converter-design capability could file here to create a systems-level moat complementary to device patents.
Search this in Eureka →H02P · Control of motors & generators
H02P contributes only 27 patent records — 1% of the composition — despite SiC’s growing adoption in motor-drive inverters for EV and industrial applications. The sparse coverage in this branch relative to the field’s overall size suggests that control-algorithm IP specifically exploiting SiC’s low switching loss characteristics has not been systematically filed. This is an adjacent area with plausible technical value for teams integrating SiC inverters into drive systems, though any opportunity claim should be validated against a broader freedom-to-operate search.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across device and systems branches
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | H01L 29 · Semiconductor devices | H01L 21 · Semiconductor devices | H10D 62 · Semiconductor devices (general) | H10D 30 · Semiconductor devices (general) | H10D 64 · Semiconductor devices (general) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toshiba Corporation | Strong · 127 | Strong · 75 | Moderate · 38 | Moderate · 36 | Moderate · 34 |
| Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. | Strong · 100 | Strong · 67 | Emerging · 19 | Emerging · 11 | Emerging · 7 |
| Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | Strong · 89 | Strong · 67 | Moderate · 21 | Moderate · 19 | Emerging · 8 |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | Strong · 60 | Strong · 37 | Moderate · 20 | Moderate · 18 | Moderate · 15 |
| Wolfspeed, Inc. | Strong · 58 | Strong · 41 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Rohm Co., Ltd. | Strong · 64 | Moderate · 28 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| GeneSiC Semiconductor Inc. | Strong · 31 | Absent | Strong · 27 | Moderate · 9 | Moderate · 11 |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 750 patent families. This is the family-level total; individual records — such as national-phase filings — can exceed this figure when jurisdictions and IPC classifications are counted.
Toshiba leads with 133 patent records, followed by Fuji Electric with 117 and Sumitomo Electric Industries with 86. The top five applicants together account for 38% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total.
The field is assessed as having reached Maturity. Annual filings peaked around 2021 and 2023 (113 records each) and eased to 81 records in 2022 and 2024. Data for 2025 and 2026 are heavily under-counted due to publication lag and do not indicate a real decline.
The United States leads with 720 patent records, followed by China (225), Europe via the EPO (139), and Japan (109). WIPO PCT filings add 49 records. The U.S. dominance reflects both international filings by Japanese majors and activity from U.S.-headquartered players.
The highest-cited work covers SiC power MOSFETs and related device structures. The top-cited titles include ‘Power MOSFET in silicon carbide’ (421 citations), ‘Silicon carbide semiconductor device and silicon carbide…’ (413 citations), and ‘Silicon carbide power MOSFET with floating field ring…’ (358 citations), reflecting the foundational importance of SiC MOSFET device architecture.
The most under-served adjacent branches relative to the device-layer core are H02M (Power conversion, 8% of the composition) and H02P (Control of motors and generators, 1%). Gate-drive logic (H03K, 2%) and crystal growth (C30B, 1%) are also sparse. These observations should be validated with a full freedom-to-operate search before drawing conclusions about commercial opportunity.
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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.