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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/silicon-nitride-ceramic-reliability-and-durability-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Advanced Materials & Metallurgy · Patent LandscapeSilicon nitride ceramic durability patents: who holds the substrate claims and where filing has stalled
- Filing peaked in 2020 at six records and has not returned to that level, with the 2022 midpoint at zero — this is a flat-to-declining filing curve, not a growth story.
- Europe (EPO) accounts for 15 of the tracked filings against just 5 from the US, signalling that European examination and enforcement matter more than US filing volume alone would suggest.
- One assignee pairing — Toshiba and Toshiba Materials — drives 10 of the co-filed records, the strongest joint-filing relationship in the dataset by a wide margin.
25
Published Records
EP
Leading Jurisdiction
9
Active Filers Ranked
2020
Peak Filing Year
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing silicon nitride ceramic substrates, sintered bodies and circuit boards where the claims speak to fracture toughness, thermal shock durability, wear resistance or related test methodology under C04B35/587, G01N3 and C04B35/645. The core application is power electronics and thermoelectric modules, where a silicon nitride substrate has to combine thermal conductivity with mechanical strength under repeated thermal cycling.
Twenty-five families is a small, tightly scoped corpus. The IPC composition shows why: C04B ceramics classification appears in all 25 records, but H01L semiconductor devices and H05K printed circuit assemblies each appear in 14, meaning most of this art is filed as a materials claim in service of an electronic packaging application, not as ceramics chemistry in isolation.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Silicon Nitride Ceramic Reliability and Durability covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Filing & Classification Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Publication figures for the most recent one to two years understate actual filing activity, because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months. Read the trailing years as a floor, not a ceiling.
A flat curve with one peak
Filings sat at zero in 2017, rose to a peak of six in 2020, then fell back to zero at the 2022 midpoint. There is no sustained multi-year growth phase in this dataset — activity is concentrated in a short window around 2019-2021.
Ceramics claims filed alongside electronics packaging
Every record carries a C04B ceramics classification, but H01L and H05K each cover more than half the corpus, and H10W appears in 13 records. B28B shaping, G01N testing, B24B grinding and C01B inorganic compounds each cover a handful of records — these are the smaller, more specific technical branches within the broader substrate-and-packaging story.
Shares are the percentage of the 25 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Silicon Nitride Ceramic Reliability and Durability covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited records
Representative Filing
EP1201623B1 — Silicon Nitride Ceramic Substrate (Toshiba)
KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
The filing claims a silicon nitride sintered body with maximum grain-boundary pore size of 0.3µm or less, thermal conductivity of 50W/mK or more, and three-point bending strength of 500MPa or more, combined with a leak-current ceiling of 1000nA under a defined AC voltage, temperature and humidity test. The combination ties a specific microstructural control (pore size) to measurable electrical and mechanical performance thresholds.Filed by Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, published 2016-08-31.
Ranked by citation count
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6846765B2 | Silicon nitride powder, silicon nitride sintered body, sintered silicon nitride substrate, and circuit board … | 91 |
| 2 | US7031166B2 | Silicon nitride powder, silicon nitride sintered body, sintered silicon nitride substrate, and circuit board … | 19 |
| 3 | US9293384B2 | Silicon nitride substrate, circuit substrate and electronic device using the same | 3 |
| 4 | US20210122680A1 | Silicon Nitride Sintered Body, Silicon Nitride Substrate, And Silicon Nitride Circuit Board | 2 |
| 5 | JP2023126262A | Method for producing silicon nitride substrate | 1 |
| 6 | EP3951853A1 | Silicon nitride substrate, silicon nitride-metal complex, silicon nitride circuit board, and semiconductor pa… | 1 |
| 7 | EP3831799A1 | Silicon nitride sintered body, silicon nitride substrate, and silicon nitride circuit substrate | 1 |
| 8 | EP1201623B1 | Silicon nitride ceramic substrate and silicon nitride ceramic circuit board using the substrate | 1 |
| 9 | EP0732313A1 | Silicon nitride ceramic and method of shaping the same | 1 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings, since they have had more time to accumulate references. Treat the ranking as a signal of historical influence, not of current commercial weight.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (9 of 9 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Silicon Nitride Ceramic Reliability and Durability covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
The dataset is small enough that individual filings move the picture, which makes the composition and citation data more informative than raw counts alone.
Filing Trend
Peak 6 (2020)
records in the peak year
Activity clustered, then dropped
The peak year of six filings sits against a 2022 midpoint of zero, and 2017 also opened at zero. This is a short filing window rather than a sustained build-up, which suggests the core substrate chemistry was claimed early and later entrants had less room to add distinct art.
Read against an 18-month publication lag for the most recent years.
Jurisdiction Mix
EPO 15 vs US 5
receiving-office split
Europe carries the filing weight
Fifteen of the tracked records route through the EPO against five in the US, with China, Japan and Germany each contributing a handful. Freedom-to-operate work for this art should weight European prosecution and opposition history at least as heavily as US filings.
Germany appears separately from the EPO total, indicating some direct national filing alongside the regional route.
Co-filing
10 shared records
strongest assignee pairing
One joint-filing relationship dominates
Toshiba and Toshiba Materials co-appear on ten records, far ahead of the next pairing at two. That concentration suggests a captive supply relationship between parent and materials subsidiary rather than a broad licensing or joint-development network across the field.
Only two co-assignee pairings appear in the dataset at all.
Classification
C04B in 25/25
records carrying the ceramics class
Ceramics claims are inseparable from packaging use
Every record in this corpus carries a C04B classification, but more than half also carry H01L or H05K. Claims in this space are drafted for a specific electronic packaging context, so prior art searches that stop at ceramics classes alone will miss relevant packaging-side filings.
H10W appears in 13 records, close behind H01L and H05K.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to silicon nitride ceramic reliability and durability, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Silicon Nitride Ceramic Reliability and Durability covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Assignee Landscape
Who is filing, and where the activity has gone quiet
Every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, including a documented -100% year-on-year drop for one entrant. That is consistent with the flat 2022 midpoint in the overall trend: this is a corpus with a defined historical filing window rather than one still being actively built out.
Lead Filer Pairing
10 co-filed records
Toshiba + Toshiba Materials
Toshiba and its materials subsidiary
The strongest relationship in the dataset by far, with Toshiba and Toshiba Materials appearing together on ten records. The representative featured patent, EP1201623B1, was filed under Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, matching this pairing's centrality to the corpus.
Zero filings recorded for both entities in the latest year.
Secondary Pairing
2 co-filed records
Sumitomo Electric Industries pairing
A smaller joint-filing relationship
Sumitomo Electric Industries appears with an industrial-research co-assignee on two records — the only other co-filing pair identified in this dataset, well behind the Toshiba pairing in scale.
No recent-year activity recorded for this pairing either.
Momentum
-100% YoY
for one named assignee
Recent-year momentum has stalled across the board
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including entities with historical filing activity, shows zero records in the latest year. One assignee's filings dropped -100% year-on-year, underscoring that this is a corpus to search for prior art and freedom-to-operate risk rather than one to watch for near-term competitive moves.
Consistent with the zero midpoint at 2022 in the overall filing trend.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | — |
| Toshiba Materials Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Denka Company Limited | 0 | — |
| Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hode (Shanghai) Industrial Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Bomeilai Ceramics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Kozo Iizuka, Director-General of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology | 0 | — |
| Kyocera Corporation | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Silicon Nitride Ceramic Reliability and Durability covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
A 25-family corpus is small enough to review claim-by-claim rather than rely on aggregate statistics alone.
Map claims against your own substrate chemistry
Pull the full claim text of the highest-cited records and compare pore-size, thermal-conductivity and strength thresholds against your own formulation before drafting new claims in this space.
Explore in Eureka →Check the thin sub-areas before filing
Grinding/polishing wear-resistance methods and thermal-cycling test protocols carry only a handful of records each — worth a targeted search before assuming freedom to operate.
Run a white-space search →Track the EPO opposition and prosecution history
With 15 of 25 records routed through the EPO, opposition and examination history there is likely to carry more weight for this art than US file histories alone.
Review EPO filings →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Silicon Nitride Ceramic Reliability and Durability covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on silicon nitride ceramic durability patents
Toshiba, together with its materials subsidiary Toshiba Materials, is the strongest single filing relationship in this dataset, co-appearing on ten records including the representative EP1201623B1 filing on a silicon nitride ceramic substrate. Sumitomo Electric Industries holds a smaller pairing with an industrial-research co-assignee. Because the corpus is only 25 families, ownership is concentrated rather than spread across many competitors, so a freedom-to-operate review should start with these two groups before expanding further.
No. The filing trend in this dataset peaked at six records in 2020 and had fallen back to zero by the 2022 midpoint, with 2017 also starting at zero. Every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, and one shows a documented -100% year-on-year change. Recent-year figures are always understated because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, but even allowing for that lag, this reads as a filing window that has closed rather than one still building.
EP1201623B1, filed by Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, claims a silicon nitride sintered body with a maximum grain-boundary pore size of 0.3 micrometres or less, thermal conductivity of 50 W/mK or more, and three-point bending strength of 500 MPa or more, combined with a leak-current ceiling of 1000 nanoamps under a specified AC voltage, temperature and humidity test. It ties a microstructural control parameter — pore size — directly to measurable electrical and mechanical performance thresholds, which is the core of what a design-around would need to avoid replicating exactly.
C04B35/587 and C04B35/645 anchor the ceramics-composition side and appear across all 25 records in this dataset. But more than half of the same records also carry H01L (semiconductor devices) and H05K (printed circuit assemblies) classifications, and 13 carry H10W, because most of this art is drafted for use in electronic packaging rather than as standalone ceramics chemistry. A search limited to C04B alone will miss a large share of the relevant packaging-side prior art.
The thinnest branches in this dataset are grinding and polishing wear-resistance methods (B24B, 2 records), inorganic precursor powder synthesis (C01B, 2 records) and shaped-body forming under B28B (4 records), compared with 25 records carrying the core C04B ceramics classification. These smaller branches have not been claimed as densely as the core substrate composition and packaging claims, making them worth a targeted prior-art check before filing new claims there.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Silicon Nitride Ceramic Reliability and Durability covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.