Silicon Photonics Integration Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since the 2022 peak of 79. 2026 is on pace for 12, well below the 2017 baseline of 40 — a market consolidating around fewer, larger filers rather than expanding.
- Citation weight sits in decade-old transmitter PIC art. The most-cited records date to the early 2000s (TxPIC architectures, digital optical network patents), meaning newer co-packaged optics claims are still building citation history.
- Momentum has stalled across almost every tracked assignee. Most named filers show zero filings in the latest year; only one shows any recent activity, and even that is down 29% year-on-year.
What this landscape covers
Silicon photonics integration patents in this dataset sit at the intersection of waveguide loss, modulator bandwidth, fiber coupling, thermal tuning and co-packaged optics claim language, filtered to art classified under optical elements, semiconductor devices and broadband transmission. The corpus spans 2015 through mid-2026 and totals 760 patent families, giving a family-level view that discounts continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates.
Filing offices skew heavily toward the United States, with PCT and European filings a distant second and third; Canada, the UK and China each hold single-digit shares of the office split. That distribution points to a technology still prosecuted primarily through US-first strategies, with international filing used selectively rather than as a default.
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Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 760-family corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A peak in 2022, then decline
Filings rose from 40 in 2017 to a peak of 79 in 2022, then fell back toward 12 by 2026. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the final two years understate true activity, but the shape of the curve — a clear rise-then-fall around 2022 — is unlikely to be fully explained by lag alone.
Optics dominates the classification mix
G02B (optical elements & systems) appears in 668 of 760 records, far ahead of H04B transmission art (240) and H01S lasers (149). H01L semiconductor-device classification appears in only 125 records, suggesting most claim language is written from an optical-systems perspective even where the underlying device is a semiconductor structure.
Shares are the percentage of the 760 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Silicon Photonics Integration with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about silicon photonics integration and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art
3D Co-Packaged Optics Stack (US20250258350A1)
A 3D co-packaged optics stack that layers thermal management, a PCB, a processing layer, a TIA/driver EIC layer and a PIC layer into a single vertical assembly, filed by II-VI Delaware and published in 2025.Filed by II-VI Delaware, published 2025-08-14 — one of the newest records in the dataset and a useful marker of where co-packaged optics claim drafting has moved.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20030095737A1 | Transmitter photonic integrated circuits (TxPIC) and optical transport networks employing TxPICs | 294 |
| 2 | US20030095736A1 | Transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TxPIC) chip architectures and drive systems and wavelength stabiliza… | 281 |
| 3 | US8213751B1 | Electronic-integration compatible photonic integrated circuit and method for fabricating electronic-integrati… | 219 |
| 4 | US20030099018A1 | Digital optical network architecture | 189 |
| 5 | US20050100345A1 | Monolithic transmitter/receiver photonic integrated circuit (Tx/RxPIC) transceiver chip | 151 |
| 6 | US20040067006A1 | Transmitter photonic integrated circuit ( TxPIC) chips | 143 |
| 7 | US20080044128A1 | TRANSMITTER PHOTONIC INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (TxPICs) AND OPTICAL TRANSPORT NETWORK SYSTEM EMPLOYING TxPICs | 138 |
| 8 | US20080138088A1 | Monolithic transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TXPIC) having tunable modulated sources with feedback sys… | 122 |
| 9 | US6795622B2 | Photonic integrated circuits | 122 |
| 10 | US20170194309A1 | Photonic integrated circuit package | 111 |
Citation counts are a signal of historical influence within this searched corpus, not of current commercial relevance — older transmitter PIC filings dominate simply by virtue of age.
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Three patterns stand out once filing volume, citation weight and classification mix are read together.
The category has passed its filing peak
Volume climbed from 40 filings in 2017 to a peak of 79 in 2022, then declined toward 12 in 2026. Even allowing for publication lag understating the last two years, the downward slope after 2022 marks this as a maturing claim space rather than a growth one.
Influence sits in early transmitter PIC architecture
The most-cited records are transmitter photonic integrated circuit and digital optical network patents from the early 2000s. Anything filed on co-packaged optics or modulator bandwidth today is competing against foundational art that has had two decades to accumulate citations.
Claims are drafted as optics, not semiconductor devices
G02B optical-elements classification covers 668 of 760 records versus 125 for H01L semiconductor devices. Drafting strategy in this field still runs through optical-systems claim language even when the invention is fundamentally a fabricated device structure.
US-first filing dominates the office split
The United States accounts for 476 of the tracked filings, well ahead of PCT (103) and Europe (85); Canada, the UK and China each sit in single digits. Strategies built for global enforcement will need to layer international filing deliberately rather than assume it follows automatically.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to silicon photonics integration, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and momentum
Filing activity has slowed across nearly every named assignee tracked in this corpus, with one exception showing any filings at all in the latest year.
Lumentum is the only assignee still filing
Lumentum recorded 5 filings in the latest tracked year, down 29% year-on-year. Every other named assignee in the momentum table — including Infinera, Acacia, Intel and Nubis Communications — shows zero filings in the same period.
Co-assignment is inventor-driven, not cross-company
The strongest co-assignee pairs link named individual inventors to their employer (Nubis Communications with Giles Clinton Randy; Lumentum with Sandeep Sane and Mitul Modi), each appearing three times. There is no evidence in this dataset of joint filing between competing companies.
Even smaller specialists have gone quiet
Teramount, a narrower fiber-coupling specialist, shows a full year-on-year drop to zero filings in the latest tracked year, consistent with the broader flattening seen across the assignee set.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Lumentum Holdings Inc. | 5 | -29% |
| Infinera Corporation | 0 | — |
| Acacia Communications, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Intel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Nubis Communications, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Teramount Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Ayar Labs, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| PsiQuantum Corp. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this
The trend and assignee data point to a field past its filing peak but still holding dense, well-cited claim territory in a handful of sub-areas.
Map claims against the flattening trend
Before filing new applications in modulator bandwidth or waveguide loss, check whether the decline from the 2022 peak reflects genuine claim saturation in that specific sub-area or simply publication lag.
Explore filing trends in EurekaWatch the one assignee still moving
Lumentum's continued filing, even at a declining rate, makes it the one assignee worth tracking closely for signals of where remaining investment is going.
Track assignee activity in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Thermal interface materials and wafer-scale bonding tolerances show thinner filing density than the core waveguide and modulator claims — worth a freedom-to-operate check before assuming they are open.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions on silicon photonics integration patents
The most-cited records in this corpus are transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TxPIC) patents and digital optical network architecture patents dating to the early 2000s, with citation counts as high as 294. These are foundational architecture patents rather than recent co-packaged optics filings, so citation weight favors age over current commercial relevance. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should check both the highly cited foundational art and the more recent, less-cited filings from active assignees like Lumentum.
No. Filings peaked at 79 in 2022 and have declined since, with the latest tracked year on pace for only 12. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the most recent one to two years are understated, but the downward trend after the 2022 peak is too steep to attribute to lag alone. This points to a field that has passed its most active filing phase, at least for the claim language captured by this search.
Momentum data shows almost every named assignee at zero filings in the latest tracked year. Lumentum is the one exception, filing 5 in the latest year, though that is itself down 29% year-on-year. Companies including Infinera, Acacia, Intel and Nubis Communications show no recent filings in this dataset, which does not necessarily mean no R&D activity, but does mean no new patent claims captured by this search criteria.
Sub-areas with thinner filing density relative to the core corpus include edge-coupled spot-size converters, thermal-tuning drift compensation circuits, co-packaged optics thermal interface materials, wafer-scale PIC-to-EIC bonding tolerances and polarization-diverse grating couplers. These sit adjacent to the heavily claimed waveguide, modulator and fiber-coupling territory but have not attracted the same filing volume. A first claim in these areas would need to target the specific mechanical or thermal interface rather than the general optical function, which is already densely claimed.
US20250258350A1, assigned to II-VI Delaware and published in August 2025, describes a 3D co-packaged optics stack that vertically layers a thermal management layer, a PCB, a processing layer, a TIA/driver EIC layer and a PIC layer. It matters because it is one of the newest records in this dataset and reflects how co-packaged optics claim drafting has moved toward vertical, multi-layer stack architectures rather than single-plane PIC designs. Anyone designing a competing CPO stack should review its layer-ordering and interface claims closely.
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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.