Silicon Modulator Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Silicon modulator and high-speed link patents: mapping the filers, the claim clusters and the open ground
Concentrated but not locked up. the top 5 assignees hold 21.7% of all 946 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 33.0% — leaving two-thirds of the field outside the leading group. Annual publications rose from 55 in 2017 to a peak of 104 in 2019, then eased. The 2021-to-2024 window — the most recent span that can be treated as complete given publication lag — fell 67%, from 55 to 18 records. 2025 and 2026 figures will continue to rise as later filings publish; they should not be read as a further decline yet.
- 1MARVELL ASIA PTE LTD5.2%
- 2INFINERA CORP4.8%
- 3BARAJA PTY LTD4.1%
- 4CIENA CORP3.9%
- 5LUMENTUM TECHNOLOGY UK LTD3.7%
See the full silicon modulators and high speed links analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about silicon modulator patents
Who holds the most patents on silicon modulators?
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by record count, with the leader holding 49 records and the fifth-placed assignee holding 35. The top five together account for 21.7% of all 946 records in scope, and the top ten reach 33.0%. That leaves roughly two-thirds of the field distributed across a long tail of smaller filers, so no single company controls the technology outright.
Is silicon modulator patent filing still growing?
No — filing activity peaked at 104 published records in 2019 and has since declined, with the 2021-to-2024 span down 67%, from 55 to 18 records. Because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in any dataset are still incomplete and will rise as pending applications publish, so they should not yet be read as confirming a further slowdown.
What patent classes cover silicon modulator technology?
The largest share, 53.9% of the 946 records, sits in G02F (optical control and modulation), followed by H04B (transmission, general) at 42.2% and G02B (optical elements and systems) at 23.3%. Semiconductor-device claims under H01L are comparatively thin at 8.1%, which suggests device integration is less heavily claimed than the optical modulation behaviour itself. Records commonly carry more than one class, so these percentages overlap rather than sum to 100%.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Silicon Modulators and High Speed Links covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.