Stellarator Modularity Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- A sharp 2023 peak, then a drop-off. Filings ran near zero through 2017-2021, spiked to 21 families in 2023, then fell back — a pattern more consistent with a single wave of core filings than a sustained buildup.
- Magnets carry the claim weight, not reactor architecture. G21B (fusion reactors) and H01F (magnets, inductors, transformers) dominate the IPC mix, meaning the fight is over coil and field-shaping geometry more than plant-level system design.
- The most-cited records share one lineage. The top two cited-record families both center on cubic permanent-magnet-block stellarator construction and planar coil geometry, suggesting these specific architectures set the reference point for later filers.
A narrow, recently active corpus
The dataset covers 42 published patent families filed against stellarator and helical fusion device terms combined with modular coil, modular reactor design, or standardized module language. This is a small corpus by fusion-technology standards, and its filing history is short: activity was essentially absent before 2018 and concentrated almost entirely in the years since 2022. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent year in the trend understates real filing activity — 2026’s single record is not evidence the field has gone quiet.
Receiving-office data shows the United States and the European Patent Office carrying the largest shares, with WIPO PCT filings indicating that some applicants are already pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection rather than filing locally only. The presence of India, Germany, and Austria as receiving offices, even at low counts, points to a technology that private and institutional developers alike are choosing to protect outside their home jurisdiction.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 42 families: when the claims were filed, and which technical subject matter they fall under.
A single filing wave, not a steady climb
The trend runs flat near zero from 2017 through roughly 2021, climbs sharply, and peaks at 21 families in 2023 — half the entire corpus in one year. The midpoint year, 2022, shows just one filing, underlining how compressed this activity is. Readers should treat 2025-2026 counts as provisional given publication lag.
Magnet and coil engineering, not systems integration
G21B (fusion reactors) and H01F (magnets, inductors and transformers) account for the bulk of records, with G21D (nuclear power plants) a distant third. The long tail — H01B cabling, G01R measurement, G06F data processing, H01J discharge tubes, H05H plasma accelerators — each appear only once or a few times, marking areas that are touched on but not yet built out as dedicated claim territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 42 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Stellarator Modularity and Standardization with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about stellarator modularity and standardization and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filers are building around
Methods and systems for forming stellarator coils and superconducting tapes
The application addresses superconducting tape shrinkage in stellarator coils, describing methods to form a stellarator coil with improved volume utilization from a cable bent into a tapered helical shape, a thin-spine-and-strut structure to suspend high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes, and associated insulation materials.Filed by Type One Energy Group, Inc., published 2025-10-23 as WO2025221339A2.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20220208397A1 | Stellarator magnet based on cubic permanent magnet blocks and arrangement optimization method thereof | 20 |
| 2 | US20230290525A1 | Planar coil stellarator | 12 |
| 3 | US12009111B2 | Planar coil stellarator | 10 |
| 4 | US12100520B2 | Planar coil stellarator | 7 |
| 5 | US11646139B2 | Stellarator magnet based on cubic permanent magnet blocks and arrangement optimization method thereof | 7 |
| 6 | US20240153651A1 | Planar coil stellarator | 6 |
| 7 | US20240177874A1 | Planar coil stellarator | 5 |
| 8 | WO2023178004A1 | Planar coil stellarator | 5 |
| 9 | EP4258284A1 | Magnetic chamber and modular coils | 3 |
| 10 | WO2025171046A1 | Methods and systems for stellarator operation and maintenance | 2 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older, earlier-filed records — they are a signal of what later filers referenced, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are put in context.
One concentrated wave, not steady growth
Filings sat at zero in 2017 and stayed negligible through 2021 before jumping to 21 families in 2023 — half the entire dataset in a single year. That shape reads as a cluster of related core filings rather than an industry ramping up gradually, and it means the field's competitive picture could shift quickly again if another wave lands.
Claims cluster on the reactor and its magnets
G21B and H01F together account for the great majority of records, meaning the claim space in this corpus is overwhelmingly about fusion reactor construction and the magnets that shape the plasma field, not about balance-of-plant or control systems.
Cubic permanent-magnet and planar-coil designs anchor the field
The two most-cited record families both concern cubic permanent-magnet-block stellarator construction and planar coil geometry. Their repeated citation suggests these are the reference architectures against which later filers are differentiating.
US and European filing dominate, with early PCT activity
The United States and the European Patent Office receive the largest shares of filings, and a meaningful WIPO PCT count shows some applicants already pursuing multi-jurisdiction coverage rather than a single home filing.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to stellarator modularity and standardization, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and how much momentum they carry
The assignee set is small and recent-year activity is thin across the board, which is typical for a field this young and this concentrated.
The only pair with an active latest-year filing
Kruger Thomas and Gates David appear together as the strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset and are also the only names showing a filing in the most recent year, making them the one visible point of ongoing activity as the field's 2023 wave recedes.
A prior filer that has gone quiet
Thea Energy Inc. shows zero filings in the latest year against a prior filing history, a full year-over-year drop that is worth watching rather than reading as exit — the drop could as easily reflect the same publication lag affecting the whole 2025-2026 window.
Universities and national labs hold ground but aren't filing fresh
Several institutional names in the ranking, including university and national-research-institute assignees, show no filings in the latest year. Their presence in the historical ranking without current-year activity is consistent with the corpus's overall 2023-peak-then-decline shape rather than a signal specific to any one of them.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| KRUGER THOMAS | 1 | — |
| GATES DAVID | 1 | — |
| The Trustees of Princeton University | 0 | — |
| Renaissance Fusion | 0 | — |
| THEA ENERGY INC | 0 | -100% |
| Type One Energy Group, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 0 | — |
| PROXIMA FUSION GMBH | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a small number of concrete next steps for teams evaluating freedom-to-operate or filing strategy in this space.
Watch the 2025-2026 window closely
Given publication lag, filings from the last 18 months are undercounted. A follow-up pull in six to twelve months will show whether the 2023 wave was a one-off or the start of a new cluster.
Explore filing trends in EurekaMap claim scope against the cited-record architectures
The cubic permanent-magnet-block and planar-coil families draw the most citations. Any new filing in coil geometry should be checked against these specifically, not just the corpus broadly.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches before they fill in
Support structures, interconnect cabling, and measurement subclasses each carry only a handful of records. These are the areas most likely to still be open for a strong first claim.
Search white space in EurekaCommon questions about stellarator modularity patents
This landscape identifies 42 published patent families matching stellarator and helical fusion device terms combined with modular coil, modular reactor design, or standardized module language, covering filings from 2015 through mid-2026. That is a small corpus compared with broader fusion-technology searches, reflecting how specific and recent this sub-field is. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the true count for 2025-2026 filings will rise as more applications publish.
The dataset shows a concentrated set of assignees rather than one dominant filer, with the strongest co-assignee relationship being Kruger Thomas and Gates David, who are also the only pair showing filing activity in the most recent year. Several institutional assignees, including university and national-laboratory groups, hold historical filings but show no latest-year activity. Readers should consult the full assignee ranking table rendered on this page for the complete ordering rather than relying on any single name mentioned here.
The overwhelming majority of records fall under IPC class G21B, fusion reactors, and H01F, magnets and inductors, meaning claims are concentrated on reactor construction and magnetic field-shaping components rather than plant-level systems or control software. G21D, nuclear power plants, is a distant third. Smaller subclasses covering cabling, measurement, data processing, discharge tubes and plasma accelerators each appear only once or a few times, marking peripheral rather than core claim territory.
The data shows filings near zero from 2017 through 2021, then a sharp jump to 21 families in 2023, half the entire corpus in one year. This pattern is more consistent with a cluster of related core filings, possibly from one or a few active applicants, than with gradual industry-wide growth. Whether this was a one-time wave or the start of sustained activity is not yet resolvable from the trend alone, given that 2025-2026 data is still incomplete due to publication lag.
Based on IPC composition, the subclasses with only one or a handful of records — cable and conductor insulation (H01B), electric and magnetic measurement (G01R), data processing (G06F), discharge tubes (H01J) and plasma accelerators (H05H) — are the least claim-dense areas in this corpus. Specific sub-areas such as HTS tape shrinkage mitigation, modular coil support structures, and standardized interconnect cabling appear touched on but not heavily built out. A first claim drafted precisely in these areas has a better chance of avoiding the dense prior art sitting on core coil and magnet geometry.
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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.