Standard Cell Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Standard cell and design technology co-optimization patents: who is filing, and where the claim space is still open
Concentrated but not closed. the top 5 assignees hold 39.8% of all 1,470 records in scope, yet a long tail of single- and low-filing entrants still files every year. Filings ran from 88 in 2017 to a peak of 109 in 2018, then held in a broad band before the 2021-to-2024 span rose 11% (85 to 94). 2025 and 2026 read low, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a genuine drop-off; 2024 is the most recent year that can be read as complete.
- 1SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD157
- 2TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO LTD152
- 3SYNOPSYS INC110
- 4PDF SOLUTIONS INC97
- 5QUALCOMM INC69
See the full standard cell and design technology co optimization 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 this landscape
Who holds the most patents in standard cell and DTCO technology?
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 157 records, well ahead of fifth place at 69 and tenth place at 38. The top 5 assignees combined account for 39.8% of all 1,470 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 56.2%. That leaves a substantial share of the field spread across a long tail of smaller filers, so leadership in raw count does not mean the field is closed to new entrants.
Is patent filing in this area growing or slowing down?
Filing grew 11% from 85 records in 2021 to 94 in 2024, and 2024 is the most recent year that can be read as a complete data point. The lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 reflect the roughly 18-month gap between when a patent is filed and when it publishes, not an actual drop in filing activity. Treat any apparent decline in the last one to two years of the trend line with caution for that reason.
What does US9165102B1 actually cover?
US9165102B1, filed by Ascale Technologies LLC and published in 2015, claims a multi-height routing cell that uses a bypass connection, or tunnel, to route a signal through a non-routing layer underneath an impeding power rail. The bypass connectors on either side let standard cells on opposite sides of that power rail connect to each other. Its practical effect is reducing routing congestion in a standard cell floorplan, which makes it a reference point for anyone filing on multi-height cell or power-rail bypass routing techniques.
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 Standard Cell and Design Technology Co Optimization 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.