Tantalum and Polymer Capacitors Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- 44.7% concentration. The top five assignees hold 105 of 235 records in scope, a tight core around a long tail of 74 ranked companies.
- Filings have flattened. Volume peaked at 14 in 2020 and sat at 10 by the 2022 midpoint, with no clear renewed growth since.
- Claims spill well beyond H01G. Electrotherapy devices (7.7%), powder metallurgy (7.2%) and alloy chemistry (5.5%) each carry a meaningful share of the same 235 records.
What this landscape covers
This dataset covers 235 published records filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine tantalum or polymer capacitor construction with claims touching ESR reduction, leakage current, failure-mode ignition, volumetric efficiency or derating practice. The scope sits at the intersection of solid electrolytic capacitor hardware (H01G9, H01G4) and the polymer chemistry (C08L65) used as the cathode layer in modern parts. Because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in any trend line understate true recent activity.
The assignee mix spans component majors, materials suppliers and a smaller group of medical-device filers whose interest traces to implantable capacitor reliability. Reading the ranking alongside the IPC composition shows where claim density sits on core capacitor construction versus where it thins out into adjacent powder metallurgy, alloy and polymer-chemistry classes.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 235 records: the year-by-year filing count, and the IPC subclasses those records carry.
A flat curve since 2020
Filings rose to a peak of 14 in 2020, then eased back toward 10 by the 2022 midpoint. That pattern reads as a maturing claim space rather than a growth market: the core hardware claims were largely staked out earlier in the window, and later filings increasingly sit in adjacent chemistry and application classes.
H01G dominates, but not exclusively
H01G capacitor claims appear in 98.7% of the 235 records, which is expected given the search scope. The more informative signal is the secondary classes: A61N electrotherapy devices (7.7%), B22F powder metallurgy (7.2%) and C22C alloys (5.5%) each recur often enough to mark identifiable sub-fields — implantable-device capacitors, tantalum powder processing, and anode alloy formulation — layered on top of the core capacitor claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 235 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Tantalum and Polymer Capacitors with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about tantalum and polymer capacitors and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US11756742B1 — Tantalum capacitor with improved leakage current stability at high temperatures
A solid electrolytic capacitor comprising a capacitor element is provided. The capacitor element contains an anode body that includes tantalum, a dielectric that overlies the anode body, and a solid electrolyte that overlies the dielectric that includes a conductive polymer. The capacitor exhibits a normalized aged leakage current of about 20% or less.Filed by Kyocera AVX Components Corporation, granted 2023-09-12.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US3828227A | Solid tantalum capacitor with end cap terminals | 126 |
| 2 | US5217526A | Fibrous tantalum and capacitors made therefrom | 75 |
| 3 | US5306462A | Fibrous tantalum and capacitors made therefrom | 69 |
| 4 | US3686535A | Electrolytic capacitor with separate interconnected anode bodies | 59 |
| 5 | US5284531A | Cylindrical metal fibers made from tantalum, columbium, and alloys thereof | 54 |
| 6 | US20100067172A1 | High electric energy density polymeric compositions, methods of the manufacture therefor, and articles compri… | 51 |
| 7 | US4017773A | Solid valve-metal capacitor with buried graphite in the particles in the electrolyte | 47 |
| 8 | US20040243183A1 | Wet tantalum capacitor usable without reformation and medical devices for use therewith | 46 |
| 9 | US20040225327A1 | Wet tantalum reformation method and apparatus | 38 |
| 10 | US6952339B1 | Tantalum capacitor case with increased volumetric efficiency | 37 |
Citation counts accumulate over time and favour older filings; treat them as a measure of influence within this corpus, not of current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, trend and IPC composition are read together.
A tight core, not a monopoly
Top five assignees hold 105 of the 235 records, and the top ten extend that to 66.8% (157 records). That leaves roughly a third of the field spread across a long tail of single- and low-filing entrants, which is where freedom-to-operate work tends to find the most room.
Flat filing activity
The filing curve peaked in 2020 and has not returned to that level since. Several of the leading assignees show zero filings in the most recent year, which combined with the 18-month publication lag makes it hard to call this a growing field on volume alone.
Medical devices and powder metallurgy both matter
Capacitor claims that also touch electrotherapy devices or powder metallurgy each appear in roughly one in thirteen records. That is enough volume to treat implantable-device reliability and tantalum powder processing as distinct sub-fields worth searching separately, not noise inside the core H01G class.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to tantalum and polymer capacitors, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity has stalled
The ranked leaders combine established component manufacturers, a tantalum materials supplier, and medical-device firms filing around implantable capacitor reliability.
One assignee well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 28 records, notably ahead of the fifth-place holder at 17. That gap suggests a deliberate, sustained filing programme rather than opportunistic patenting.
A steep drop after the top five
Filing counts fall from 17 at fifth place to 7 at tenth, meaning the mid-tier is thinner than the top-five concentration alone implies. Competitive attention should focus on the top ten as a group rather than the leader alone.
Medical-device co-filing is the strongest link
The strongest co-assignee pairs pair a medical-device company with both a capacitor manufacturer and named individual inventors, at up to five shared records. That pattern points to joint development on implantable-grade capacitor reliability rather than arm's-length licensing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Vishay Sprague Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Medtronic Inc. | 0 | — |
| China Zhenhua Group Xinyun Electronic Components Co., Ltd. (State-Owned Factory No. 4326) | 0 | -100% |
| DAEWOO ELECTRONICS COMPONENTS CO LTD | 0 | — |
| Kemet Electronics Corp. | 0 | — |
| SPRAGUE ELECTRIC CO | 0 | — |
| Cabot Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up work rather than a single conclusion.
Map the white space claims
The under-claimed branches in polymer additive chemistry and anode alloy processing warrant a closer claim-by-claim read before drafting new applications in those areas.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the flattening trend
With filings flat since 2020 and several leaders at zero in the latest year, monitoring quarterly filing data will show whether this is consolidation or a genuine slowdown.
Track filing trends in EurekaCheck freedom-to-operate against the top ten
Because the top ten assignees hold two-thirds of records, any new filing in core H01G capacitor construction should be checked against their portfolios first.
Run an FTO search in EurekaCommon questions on tantalum and polymer capacitor patents
Within this 235-record dataset, one assignee leads with 28 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 17. The top five assignees together hold 105 records, or 44.7% of all records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 66.8%. The remaining share is spread across a long tail drawn from 74 ranked companies, so the field is concentrated at the top but not closed to new entrants.
Filing activity peaked at 14 records in 2020 and had eased to 10 by the 2022 midpoint, with several leading assignees showing zero filings in the most recent year. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the last one to two years in any trend chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be. Taken together, the pattern looks like a maturing claim space rather than an expanding one.
US11756742B1, granted to Kyocera AVX Components Corporation in September 2023, covers a solid electrolytic capacitor with a tantalum-containing anode body, a dielectric layer, and a conductive-polymer solid electrolyte, where the capacitor achieves a normalized aged leakage current of about 20% or less. That specific leakage-current threshold tied to the conductive-polymer electrolyte structure is the operative limitation. Anyone designing a similar tantalum-polymer capacitor for high-temperature stability should check their leakage-current specification and electrolyte composition against this claim rather than assuming general tantalum-capacitor art clears it.
Inside this dataset, secondary IPC classes such as C08L (polymer compositions), C08K (polymer additives) and C08G (condensation polymers) each cover under 4% of the 235 records, notably thinner than the core H01G capacitor class at 98.7%. That gap suggests polymer additive packages for ESR control and condensation-polymer electrolyte chemistry are less densely claimed than the capacitor hardware itself. Thinner coverage is not proof the technology is unexplored, but it does mean fewer blocking claims to search against before filing there.
A61N electrotherapy and radiation-therapy claims appear in 7.7% of the 235 records, reflecting the use of tantalum capacitors in implantable devices such as defibrillators, where volumetric efficiency and failure-mode ignition safety are critical design constraints. The strongest co-assignee relationships in this dataset pair a medical-device company with a capacitor manufacturer and named inventors, recurring at four to five shared records. That pattern indicates joint development programmes between device makers and component suppliers rather than incidental overlap.
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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.