Fastest
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/thin-film-photovoltaics-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Solar EnergyThin-Film Photovoltaics Patents: Who Files, What They Claim, and What's Still Open
- 13.7% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees hold 1,031 of the 7,512 records in scope — a real lead, but not a lockout, since the other 86.3% is spread across a long tail.
- Filings cooled from a 2018 peak of 299. The complete-year comparison shows 2021's 140 filings dropping to 95 by 2024, a 32% pullback — though 2025-26 figures are still filling in under publication lag.
- Semiconductor-device claims dominate the class mix. H01L appears on 73.7% of all records, while dedicated photovoltaic-generation claims under H02S sit at just 11.5% — most of the patenting here is device architecture, not systems-level solar engineering.
7,512
Published Records
14%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-32%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (140 records) with 2024 (95) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 7,512 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape draws on 7,512 published records matched against thin-film photovoltaic terminology combined with performance metrics such as cell efficiency, module temperature and power output. The scope spans 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, so the most recent filing years are still incomplete due to normal publication lag. The dataset is built from patent families, which is the fairer unit for comparing filing activity because it strips out duplicate continuations and multi-jurisdiction copies of the same invention.
Filing activity is dominated by semiconductor device architecture rather than systems-level solar engineering, and the assignee base shows a genuine but partial concentration at the top rather than a small set of firms controlling the field outright. The United States is the largest single receiving office, with the PCT route and the European Patent Office each drawing over a thousand filings, pointing to a field that is pursued internationally rather than filed defensively in one jurisdiction.
Filing activity and technology composition, thin-film photovoltaics
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
10,000 free credits to start
The data
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 7,512-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the underlying inventions classify across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran near 267 in 2017, peaked at 299 in 2018, and the last complete comparison shows 2021's 140 falling to 95 in 2024 — a 32% pullback. Treat 2025 and 2026 as undercounted; publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so these bars will fill in over time rather than representing a real collapse.
IPC subclass composition
H01L (semiconductor devices) touches 73.7% of the 7,512 records, far ahead of H10K organic semiconductors (12.0%) and H02S photovoltaic generation (11.5%). Because records often carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to well over 100% and should be read individually against the full record count, not against each other as a breakdown.
Shares are the percentage of the 7,512 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about thin-film photovoltaics patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey patents
Representative filing and most-cited records
Representative filing
Thin Film Solar Cell Module and Greenhouse Provided with the Same (US20140165460A1)
NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST-NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK TNO
Discloses a thin-film solar cell module that is substantially translucent in a first wavelength domain, using a photo-electric layer to convert solar radiation in a second wavelength domain into electricity, paired with a selectively reflective layer that redirects unconverted radiation back into a further photo-electric layer for additional conversion.Filed by Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast-Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO), dated 2014-06-19.
Most-cited records in the dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080170982A1 | Fabrication and Application of Nanofiber Ribbons and Sheets and Twisted and Non-Twisted Nanofiber Yarns | 1,266 |
| 2 | US20100327766A1 | Wireless emergency lighting system | 996 |
| 3 | US20110133655A1 | Autonomous grid shifting lighting device | 934 |
| 4 | US20120080944A1 | Grid Shifting System for a Lighting Circuit | 754 |
| 5 | WO2014045021A1 | Optoelectronic device | 517 |
| 6 | US6111189A | Photovoltaic module framing system with integral electrical raceways | 491 |
| 7 | US20110121654A1 | Remote switch sensing in lighting devices | 481 |
| 8 | US8586484B2 | Film forming method and film forming apparatus | 466 |
| 9 | US20120115257A1 | Film forming method and film forming apparatus | 463 |
| 10 | US20040063320A1 | Manufacturing apparatus and method for large-scale production of thin-film solar cells | 455 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on the surrounding art, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →Insights
What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three figures worth weighing before drafting claims or scoping freedom-to-operate work in this space.
Concentration
13.7%
of 7,512 records held by the top 5 assignees
Leadership is real but not exclusive
The five leading assignees combined hold 1,031 of the 7,512 records in scope, and the top ten reach 1,547, or 20.6%. That leaves close to four-fifths of the field to a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, which is where freedom-to-operate risk is more likely to come from an unexpected direction than from the named leaders.
Based on the 100-company assignee ranking returned by the dataset.
Momentum
-32%
filing change, 2021 to 2024
Volume has pulled back from its 2018 peak
Filings peaked at 299 in 2018 and the last two complete years on record show a drop from 140 in 2021 to 95 in 2024. That is a real pullback in claim volume, not a data artefact — but 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in under normal publication lag and should not be read as a continuation of the decline yet.
2024 is the most recent year treated as complete.
Claim density
73.7%
of records touch H01L semiconductor devices
Most claims sit on device structure, not systems
H01L covers nearly three-quarters of the 7,512 records, while H02S photovoltaic-generation claims sit at 11.5% and H02J power-grid claims at 6.5%. Anyone drafting around systems integration, grid interaction or module-level power management is working in comparatively open ground relative to device-level claim density.
Classes overlap; shares are each measured against the full 7,512-record base.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to thin-film photovoltaics patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders account for a meaningful but partial share of filings, and recent-year momentum has slowed even among the largest names — leaving room for the technical branches below the leaderboard.
Leader
286
records for the top-ranked assignee
A clear leader, not a lockout
The top-ranked assignee holds 286 records against a fifth-place figure of 148 and a tenth-place figure of 81 — a steep drop-off that signals a genuine lead rather than a tightly bunched top tier.
Figures are family counts from the 100-company ranking.
Momentum
-75% YoY
latest-year change for the top assignee
Even the leader has slowed recently
The top-ranked assignee filed just 1 record in the latest year, down 75% year over year, and several other historically active filers show zero latest-year activity. This is consistent with the broader 2021-2024 pullback rather than a leader-specific retreat.
Recent-year counts are subject to publication lag.
Filing routes
3,170
US receiving-office filings
The US anchors filing strategy, PCT and EPO close behind
United States filings lead at 3,170, with the PCT route at 1,180 and the European Patent Office at 1,114. India, Australia and Germany each draw several hundred filings, indicating this technology is pursued as an international portfolio rather than a single-market play.
Counts are by receiving office, not by inventor origin.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| First Solar, Inc. | 1 | -75% |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Solar Technology Ltd. | 0 | — |
| SoloPower | 0 | — |
| International Business Machines Corporation | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of Michigan | 0 | -100% |
| SoloPower | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing, or competitive monitoring.
Map claims against the under-claimed branches
Module-level power management and grid-interactive branches show thinner filing density than core device architecture, making them a reasonable starting point for a first-claim search.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the leaders' next moves
Recent-year momentum has slowed across nearly every major assignee, which makes near-term filing signals from any one of them more informative than usual.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaScope freedom-to-operate beyond the leaderboard
With just 20.6% of records held by the ten leading assignees, most collision risk sits in the long tail rather than with the named leaders.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about thin-film photovoltaics patents
The dataset's assignee ranking shows a top-ranked filer with 286 records, well ahead of the fifth-place figure of 148 and tenth-place figure of 81. That gap indicates a genuine leader rather than a tightly bunched top tier, though the five leading assignees together account for only 13.7% of the 7,512 records in scope. Most of the field sits outside the ranked leaders, in a long tail of companies and institutions filing smaller numbers of records each.
Filing peaked at 299 records in 2018 and has since pulled back; the last two complete years show a drop from 140 filings in 2021 to 95 in 2024, a 32% decline. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent years will fill in over time. Based on complete years only, the honest read is a real pullback from a 2018 peak rather than a currently accelerating trend.
Semiconductor device structure, classified under IPC H01L, appears on 73.7% of the 7,512 records and dominates the field. Organic semiconductor technology (H10K) and dedicated photovoltaic power generation (H02S) each sit around 11-12%, with coating and deposition (C23C) and power-grid systems (H02J) further behind. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these figures should be read as independent shares of the same 7,512-record base rather than as parts of one breakdown.
Relative to the heavy claim density on device architecture under H01L, branches such as module-integrated power output monitoring, grid-interactive temperature compensation and capacitive energy buffering at module level show comparatively thin coverage. These are systems-level and integration branches rather than core device fabrication, which is where filing has concentrated. A first claim in one of these branches is more likely to find open ground than a claim written around basic thin-film device structure.
The United States receives the largest share of filings at 3,170, followed by the PCT international route at 1,180 and the European Patent Office at 1,114. India, Australia and Germany each draw several hundred filings, which points to an internationally pursued technology rather than one concentrated in a single market. Counting by receiving office reflects where protection is sought, not necessarily where the inventing organisation is based.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Thin-Film Photovoltaics Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole thin-film photovoltaics patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.