Thin-Film Encapsulation OLED Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- One filer dominates. the leading assignee holds 53 of the 100 records in scope, and the top five combined account for 88.0% of all records.
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 27 records and has declined since, with the trend showing no rebound at the 2022 midpoint.
- The United States receives the most filings by far 68 of the tracked records, well ahead of PCT, Japan, Europe, China and South Korea combined.
What this landscape covers
Thin-film encapsulation (TFE) protects the organic layers in an OLED display from moisture and oxygen ingress without the rigid glass lid used in earlier generations. This matters most where the display must flex, fold, or be built thin — the encapsulation stack has to hold a low water vapor transmission rate while surviving repeated bending and large-area deposition. The dataset behind this page tracks 100 published records filed between 2015 and 2026 whose claims and descriptions center on inorganic/organic barrier layers, PEALD processing, particle coverage, dark-spot control, and related process and structure claims.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years in the trend chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — treat the tail as provisional, not as a real drop-off.
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Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 100 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings peaked in 2017 at 27 records and had fallen to 0 by 2026, with the 2022 midpoint also at 0 — a pattern consistent with a technology whose core claim space filled early rather than one still building momentum.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H01L (semiconductor devices) appears in 96.0% of the 100 records and H10K (organic semiconductors, including OLED) in 54.0%, confirming this is overwhelmingly a semiconductor-device and OLED-structure field rather than a general coatings field — C23C coating and surface deposition claims appear in only 15.0% of records despite deposition process being central to TFE. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should be read individually, not added together.
Shares are the percentage of the 100 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Thin-Film Encapsulation for OLED Displays with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about thin-film encapsulation for oled displays and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Moisture barrier film having low refraction index and low water vapor transmission rate
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to an organic light emitting diode device, and more particularly, to moisture barrier films utilized in an OLED device. The OLED device comprises a thin film encapsulation structure and/or a thin film transistor. A moisture barrier film is used as a first barrier layer in the thin film encapsulation structure and as a passivation layer and/or a gate insulating layer in the thin film transistor. The moisture barrier film comprises a silicon oxynitride material having a low refractive index of less than about 1.5, a low water vapor transmission rate of less than about 5.0×10⁻⁵ g/m²/day, and low hydrogen content.Filed by Applied Materials, Inc. — published 2022-06-30 as US20220209188A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20140264297A1 | Thin film encapsulation-thin ultra high barrier layer for OLED application | 455 |
| 2 | US20160319422A1 | Thin film encapsulation processing system and process kit permitting low-pressure tool replacement | 37 |
| 3 | US20160218320A1 | Flexible environmental sensitive electronic device package | 26 |
| 4 | WO2014159267A1 | Thin film encapsulation – thin ultra high barrier layer for OLED application | 18 |
| 5 | US20190372052A1 | Organic electroluminescent display apparatus and method for producing same | 17 |
| 6 | US20140264296A1 | Barrier film performance with n2o dilution process for thin film encapsulation | 15 |
| 7 | US20190058160A1 | Organic electroluminescent device and method for producing same | 14 |
| 8 | US9269923B2 | Barrier films for thin film encapsulation | 14 |
| 9 | US20180233700A1 | Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) encapsulation methods and OLED encapsulation structure | 11 |
| 10 | US20180212191A1 | OLED display and manufacturing method thereof | 9 |
Citation counts are measured within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current technical 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 ranking, the trend and the class mix are read together.
The field is not fragmented
With the leading assignee alone holding 53 of the 100 records and the top five combined at 88.0%, new entrants are filing into space where a handful of players already hold dense prior art on core barrier-layer and deposition claims.
Activity has cooled since the 2017 peak
Filing volume peaked in 2017 and the 2022 midpoint already reads at 0, with no rebound visible through the most recent tracked year. Read the tail cautiously given the ~18-month publication lag, but the multi-year decline predates that lag.
Filing is US-centric with PCT as the main secondary route
The United States receives 68 of the tracked filings, with WIPO (PCT) a distant second at 10, ahead of Japan, Europe, China and South Korea — a filer targeting only PCT or a single Asian office is covering a minority of where this art is actually being staked out.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to thin-film encapsulation for oled displays, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
The assignee ranking returned by this dataset covers 12 companies; it is not a top-50 or top-100 list, and the concentration at the very top is unusually sharp for that count.
One company holds more than half the tracked records
The leading assignee's 53 records out of 100 in scope is more than the next four ranked assignees combined, indicating a single filer built most of the foundational barrier-layer and process claims early and has kept extending them.
A tight cluster sits behind the leader
Fifth place holds 4 records, a steep drop from the leader's 53 — the gap between first and fifth is where most of the top-5's 88.0% combined share concentrates in just one or two names.
The tail thins out fast
By tenth place, holdings drop to 2 records, and the top 10 combined already account for 98.0% of all 100 records — leaving almost nothing for assignees outside the ranked group.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sakai Display Products Corporation | 0 | — |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | — |
| BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (Foxconn) | 0 | — |
| Korea Institute of Science and Technology | 0 | — |
| Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature, concentrated claim space with a cooling filing trend — the next steps depend on whether you are trying to file around it or license into it.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the gate chips
The under-claimed sub-areas listed above are thin in this dataset relative to core H01L/H10K claims, but thin is not the same as clear — confirm against the leading assignee's full family before committing claim language.
Check claim scope in EurekaTrack the leading assignee's continuation activity
With 53 of 100 records and a 2017 filing peak, the leader's portfolio is worth watching for continuations or divisional filings that could extend core barrier-layer claims past their original priority dates.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaRe-run the trend once later years populate
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2022–2026 tail in this dataset understates real activity — revisit the filing trend in a future pull before concluding the field has gone cold.
Set up a tracking search in EurekaCommon questions about TFE patents
One assignee leads clearly, holding 53 of the 100 records in this dataset — more than the next four ranked assignees combined. The top five assignees together hold 88.0% of all 100 records, and the top ten reach 98.0%, so the field is concentrated among a small group rather than spread across many filers. Anyone entering this space should expect to negotiate around, or design around, a small number of dominant portfolios rather than a fragmented field.
Not based on this dataset: filing peaked in 2017 at 27 records and had fallen to 0 by 2026, with the 2022 midpoint also at 0. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the very latest years will always look artificially low, but the multi-year decline visible well before the lag window suggests genuine cooling rather than a reporting artifact. That does not mean the technology is abandoned — it can mean the core claim space filled early and later work shifted to trade secret or process know-how instead of patenting.
Claims concentrate overwhelmingly in H01L (semiconductor devices, 96.0% of the 100 records) and H10K (organic semiconductors including OLED, 54.0% of records). Coating and surface deposition claims under C23C appear in only 15.0% of records, and general coating processes under B05D in just 4.0%, despite deposition being central to how TFE stacks are actually built. That gap between the structural/device claims and the process-side claims is one of the clearer signals in this dataset about where filing density is lighter.
The United States dominates as a receiving office with 68 of the tracked filings, well ahead of WIPO/PCT at 10, Japan at 8, Europe at 5, China at 4 and South Korea at 3. A strategy built only around PCT or a single Asian jurisdiction would miss the majority of where this art is actually being staked out. This also means US prosecution history and US prior art are the first place to look when assessing freedom to operate.
US20220209188A1, assigned to Applied Materials and published 2022-06-30, claims a moisture barrier film with a refractive index below about 1.5, a water vapor transmission rate below about 5.0×10⁻⁵ g/m²/day, and low hydrogen content, used as a barrier layer in a TFE structure and doubling as a passivation or gate insulating layer in the thin-film transistor. It does not block all TFE work — it blocks approaches that combine those specific optical, barrier and hydrogen-content thresholds in a dual-function silicon oxynitride layer. Anyone designing a barrier layer with different refractive-index targets, a different material system, or a single-function (non-passivation) layer sits outside its narrowest claims, but should still check the full claim set and family before assuming clearance.
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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.