Silicon Heterojunction Passivation Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
A data-driven look at silicon heterojunction solar cell surface passivation patents: filing trends, leading assignees, technology composition and white space, based on 81 records published through 2026.
Filing growth = 2021 (3 records) → 2024 (6); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 81 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Surface passivation is the layer of engineering that determines how much of a silicon heterojunction cell’s potential efficiency actually survives contact with metal and air. This dataset tracks 81 published records filed against IPC classes covering semiconductor devices, organic semiconductors, welding/soldering, crystal growth and photovoltaic devices, from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off. Because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, the most recent one to two years understate real filing activity rather than signalling a slowdown.
Assignee concentration is high relative to the size of the field: a small group of filers holds a large majority of the family count, and receiving-office data shows China as the dominant jurisdiction ahead of Europe, the United States, WIPO/PCT filings, Taiwan and Canada.
Filing trend, technology mix and jurisdictions
Three views of the same 81 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, how the technology splits across IPC subclasses, and where applicants are filing.
Filing rose then held near its 2023 peak
Filings moved from 0 in 2017 up to a peak of 10 in 2023, with the 2021-to-2024 span showing a +100% increase (3 to 6). Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as undercounts given publication lag, not as a real decline.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
H01L dominates; every other class is a minority branch
H01L (semiconductor devices) covers 98.8% of the 81 records. H10P appears in 11.1%, and H10K, B23K, C30B and H10F each sit at 1.2-2.5%, meaning most non-H01L activity is still exploratory rather than established.
Shares are the percentage of the 81 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cell Surface Passivation Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art, and one representative recent filing
CN119031738A — Tandem solar cell and preparation method
Filed by Hebei University in November 2024, this record describes a silicon heterojunction cell paired with a perovskite cell on its light-facing side, using separate organic passivation layers on each face of the crystalline silicon substrate beneath the hole-selective and electron-selective contact layers. The stated goal is reduced parasitic absorption alongside a simpler, lower-cost passivation process.Tandem architecture places organic passivation directly at the silicon/perovskite interface — a structure the earlier-cited US filings did not need to address.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20090211627A1 | Solar cell having crystalline silicon p-n homojunction and amorphous silicon heterojunctions for surface pass… | 68 |
| 2 | US20090215218A1 | Method for making solar cell having crystalline silicon p-n homojunction and amorphous silicon heterojunction… | 37 |
| 3 | US20090211623A1 | Solar module with solar cell having crystalline silicon p-n homojunction and amorphous silicon heterojunction… | 25 |
| 4 | CN112802910A | 一种高效硅异质结太阳能电池及其制备方法 | 22 |
| 5 | CN103915523A | 一种含复合发射层硅异质结太阳电池的制备方法 | 17 |
| 6 | US20120171806A1 | Method for making solar cell having crystalline silicon p-n homojunction and amorphous silicon heterojunction… | 16 |
| 7 | CN105514206A | 背接触异质结太阳电池及其制备方法 | 15 |
| 8 | CN205231076U | 一种异质结太阳能电池 | 15 |
| 9 | CN104393121A | 掺氧非晶硅锗薄膜、异质结晶体硅太阳能电池及制备方法 | 15 |
| 10 | CN103199143A | N型掺氢晶化硅钝化的异质结太阳能电池器件 | 13 |
Citation counts favour older documents inside any searched corpus; read them as markers of foundational influence, not current relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Four read-outs from the dataset that matter more for strategy than the raw counts alone.
The field is narrower than 81 records suggests
With 33 ranked companies but the top 5 already holding two-thirds of all records, most of the remaining assignees are single- or double-filing entrants. A freedom-to-operate check should start with the leaders, not spread evenly across the ranking.
Recent growth is real, not an artefact of publication lag
The doubling from 3 filings in 2021 to 6 in 2024 is measured on years complete enough to trust. 2025-2026 figures will rise further as pending applications publish, so current totals for those years should not be read as a plateau.
Nearly everything sits in one IPC subclass
H10P, H10K, B23K, C30B and H10F together touch a small minority of records. That thinness is either genuine white space or a sign these approaches have not yet proven out at scale; the filing evidence alone cannot tell you which.
China leads filing volume by a wide margin
China's 39 records outweigh Europe (12), the United States (8), WIPO/PCT (8), Taiwan (7) and Canada (3) combined. Any competitive-intelligence process built on USPTO or EPO monitoring alone will miss most of this field's activity.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to silicon heterojunction solar cell surface passivation patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Turning this landscape into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision
The dataset shows where claim density sits and where it does not. Deciding whether to file, license or design around requires reading the actual claim language behind these numbers.
Map the leaders' active claim scope
Start with the assignees holding the largest share of the 81 records and pull their independent claims to see exactly what passivation architectures and process steps are already occupied.
Explore assignee claim scope in EurekaStress-test white-space branches
The thin IPC subclasses outside H01L may be open ground or may be technically unworkable at scale. Model candidate claim language against the existing prior art before committing R&D budget.
Run a white-space analysis in EurekaTrack the next filing wave before it publishes
Given the 18-month publication lag, 2025-2026 filings are still arriving. Set up ongoing monitoring rather than treating this snapshot as final.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Filing is concentrated: the top 5 assignees together hold 67.9% of the 81 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 88.9%. The ranking covers 33 companies in total, so beyond the leading group most assignees appear with only one or two filings each. Any competitive review should weight the leading assignees heavily rather than treating the ranking as evenly distributed.
Yes, based on the years complete enough to measure reliably: filings rose from 3 in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a +100% increase, with 2023 the peak year so far at 10 filings. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset will understate real activity and should not be read as a decline. The underlying trend through 2024 points to continued, not slowing, interest.
Almost all of it, 98.8% of the 81 records, sits in IPC class H01L covering semiconductor devices generally. Smaller pockets appear in H10P, H10K (organic semiconductors), B23K (welding/soldering), C30B (crystal growth) and H10F (photovoltaic devices), each representing a low single-digit to low double-digit share of records. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as overlapping technology touchpoints, not a partition of the field.
China is the leading receiving office by a wide margin with 39 of the 81 records, followed by Europe (EPO) with 12, the United States and WIPO/PCT filings each with 8, Taiwan with 7, and Canada with 3. This distribution means monitoring strategies built solely around USPTO or EPO databases will miss the majority of filing activity in this field. Teams doing freedom-to-operate work should include Chinese-language patent searches as a core part of the process.
CN119031738A, filed by Hebei University in November 2024, describes a tandem cell that stacks a perovskite cell over a silicon heterojunction cell, with separate organic passivation layers on each face of the crystalline silicon substrate beneath the hole- and electron-selective contact layers. It is a useful recent reference point because it shows passivation claims extending into tandem architectures rather than staying confined to standalone heterojunction cells. Anyone evaluating tandem cell freedom-to-operate should treat this filing as a marker of where claim scope is currently expanding.
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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.