Silver Paste for Solar Cell Metallization Patents: Top Filers & Trends 2026
Silver Paste for Solar Cell Metallization Patents
36.6% concentration. The top 5 assignees combined hold 347 of the 949 records in scope — a field with a clear head, not an even spread. Filings climbed from 34 in 2017 to a peak of 59 in 2022, then continued at a reduced but still active pace through 2024's 42 filings — a +27% rise over the 2021 figure of 33. The 2025 and 2026 counts (down to 6 in 2026) reflect publication lag rather than a real drop in filing.
- 1MAXEON SOLAR PTE LTD149
- 2INTEL CORP62
- 3SOLEXEL INC54
- 4SUNPOWER INC43
- 5OB REALTY LLC39
See the full silver paste for solar cell metallization 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 on this landscape
Who holds the most patents on silver paste for solar cell metallization?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 149 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 39 and tenth place at 34. The top 5 assignees together account for 347 of the 949 records in scope, or 36.6% of the total, and the top 10 push that share to 55.2%. Beyond that tier the field spreads across a long tail of companies with only a handful of filings each, so a freedom-to-operate check should prioritise the concentrated top tier before scanning the tail.
Is filing activity in solar metallization paste patents growing or slowing?
Filings grew from 33 in 2021 to 42 in 2024, a +27% increase over that span, with a peak of 59 filings in 2022. The lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 reflect the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual drop in activity. Anyone reading the trend chart should treat 2024 as the last fully reliable year and expect the two most recent years to fill in upward over time.
What technology areas dominate silver paste metallization patents?
H01L, the general semiconductor device class, appears in 75.7% of the 949 records in scope, making it by far the most common classification. Conductor and insulator class H01B follows at 13.0%, with printed-circuit class H05K at 4.4%. Photovoltaic-specific classes H02S (4.1%) and H10F (3.5%) are comparatively under-represented given the topic, which points to claim space that leans more on device architecture than on solar-specific framing.
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 Silver Paste for Solar Cell Metallization 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.