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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/time-of-flight-sensor-image-sensor-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Sensors & MEMS · Patent LandscapeTime-of-Flight Sensor Patents: Who Holds the Depth-Imaging Claims
- Filing has already flattened. the trend peaks at 3 families in 2022 and gives no sign of a renewed climb, despite the field's continued commercial relevance.
- Structured-light-assisted ToF dominates the citation record. the most-cited record in the set and its continuations account for the bulk of forward citations, anchoring the core claim territory.
- The corpus is small and US-centred. 13 of 15 records route through the USPTO, with only 2 through the EPO, leaving other jurisdictions largely unexamined in this dataset.
15
Published Records
100%
Top-5 Share of All Records
+100%
3-Yr Growth (lag-adjusted)
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Time-of-flight (ToF) sensing measures depth by timing the round trip of emitted light, and the claim territory here spans direct and indirect ToF pixel architectures, RGB-D fusion and depth imaging pixel design. The search combines title/abstract language on ToF and structured light with IPC codes covering optical distance sensing (G01S7/486, G01S17/894) and image sensor pixel structures (H01L27/146), producing a tightly scoped corpus of 15 published families rather than a sprawling one.
That size matters for how to read the rest of the page: with 15 families total, single documents and single assignees can shift the picture noticeably, and rankings should be read as directional rather than statistically robust.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Time-of-Flight Sensor Image Sensor covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The data
Filing trend and technology mix
The filing curve and the IPC breakdown both point to a narrow, already-explored claim space rather than an emerging one.
A flat, low-volume filing curve
Annual filings run from 2 families in 2017 to a peak of 3 in 2022, with 2026 showing zero on partial-year data. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years will always understate true activity, but even allowing for that lag the midpoint trend does not show acceleration.
Concentration in G01S, spillover into imaging classes
Every record in the set touches G01S (radar, sonar and positioning), confirming the search's focus on ranging and depth measurement. Secondary weight in G06T (image data processing, 8 records) and G01B (length measurement, 7) shows that most filers pair the raw ToF measurement with downstream depth-data processing rather than claiming the sensor in isolation. H04N (pictorial communication, 4), G02B (optics, 2), G06F (2) and G01J (1) appear only at the margins, suggesting that display-side and general optical-path claims are comparatively under-filed relative to the core ranging and processing claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 15 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 Time-of-Flight Sensor Image Sensor covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Time-of-Flight Sensor Image Sensor with Eureka
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The documents anchoring this space
Representative filing
Z-plane identification and box dimensioning using three-dimensional time-of-flight imaging
ANALOG DEVICES, INC.
A sensor system obtains and processes time-of-flight data captured in an arbitrary orientation. A TOF sensor gathers distance data describing surfaces in the environment; a processor identifies a horizontal Z-plane and transforms the data to align with it. In box-dimensioning embodiments the processor locates the box's top and bottom in the transformed data and derives height, length and width from those planes.Filed by Analog Devices; published 2023-11-16. It illustrates how ToF claim strategy has moved from raw depth capture toward application-specific processing pipelines built on top of a depth sensor.
Most-cited records in the corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20150062558A1 | Time-of-Flight (TOF) Assisted Structured Light Imaging | 171 |
| 2 | US10061028B2 | Time-of-flight (TOF) assisted structured light imaging | 19 |
| 3 | US20180217260A1 | Reduced Phase Sampling for High Speed Depth Sensing | 11 |
| 4 | US10739463B2 | Time-of-flight (TOF) assisted structured light imaging | 8 |
| 5 | US20180341023A1 | Time-of-Flight (TOF) Assisted Structured Light Imaging | 7 |
| 6 | US20200333467A1 | Time-of-Flight (TOF) Assisted Structured Light Imaging | 3 |
| 7 | US20230228883A1 | Z-plane identification and box dimensioning using three-dimensional time-of-flight imaging | 2 |
| 8 | US20230162368A1 | Method and system for optimizing sampling in spot time-of-flight (TOF) sensor | 1 |
| 9 | US20240163554A1 | System and method for image auto-focusing | 1 |
| 10 | US10209360B2 | Reduced phase sampling for high speed depth sensing | 1 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings that have had more time to accumulate forward citations; treat them as a signal of influence on subsequent filers, 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 Time-of-Flight Sensor Image Sensor covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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Reading the numbers
Three patterns stand out once the volume and citation data are put side by side.
Volume
15 families
total corpus size
A small, well-defined corpus
With only 15 published families matching this scoped search, the field as captured here is narrow. Rankings and shares should be treated as indicative of where activity clusters, not as precise market shares.
Basis: total published records in scope
Momentum
Peak 3 (2022)
families in the peak year
Filing has already plateaued
The trend rises from 2 families in 2017 to a peak of 3 in 2022 and shows no families in 2026's partial data. Even accounting for an 18-month publication lag, the midpoint trend reads as flat to declining rather than accelerating.
Basis: annual filing counts 2017-2026
Citations
171 citations
on the top-cited record
Influence concentrated in one filing family
The most-cited record and its continuations, all built around time-of-flight-assisted structured light imaging, draw far more forward citations than anything else in the set, indicating that later filers treat this specific approach as reference art.
Basis: within-corpus citation counts
Jurisdiction
13 of 15 US
records routed through USPTO
A US-centred filing pattern
Thirteen of the fifteen records in this corpus were filed through the USPTO, with only two through the EPO. Other major markets are effectively absent from this particular search, which likely reflects filing strategy as much as underlying technical activity.
Basis: receiving office counts
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 time-of-flight sensor image sensor, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Time-of-Flight Sensor Image Sensor covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the door is still open
Recent-year momentum across the tracked assignees is uniformly flat: none of the leading names in this corpus recorded a new family in the latest year, consistent with the plateau seen in the overall trend.
Assignee pattern
0 new families
latest-year filings, leading assignees
No recent-year movement among the leaders
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including semiconductor and consumer-electronics names in this corpus, shows zero families filed in the most recent year. That is consistent with the broader plateau, though the 18-month publication lag means the true 2025-2026 picture is still filling in.
Basis: recent-year momentum by assignee
Concentration
15 families, 15 assignees tracked
ranking basis
A dataset without a runaway leader
The assignee ranking is built from the same 15 families that make up the whole corpus, so no single filer can claim a dominant share of volume here; influence instead concentrates in the citation record around one structured-light-assisted ToF filing family.
Basis: patent family ranking
Filing routes
13 US / 2 EPO
receiving office split
US filing strategy dominates
The heavy tilt toward US filings suggests the tracked assignees are prioritising US protection for ToF sensor and pixel-level claims, leaving the EPO comparatively lightly claimed within this specific search scope.
Basis: receiving office counts
Recent-year filing momentum
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Texas Instruments | 0 | — |
| Analog Devices, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Black Sesame International Holding Limited | 0 | — |
| Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (South Korea) | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Time-of-Flight Sensor Image Sensor covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a mature, narrowly claimed core and a thinner periphery. Two directions make sense from here.
Stress-test a claim against the structured-light-assisted core
Because citation influence concentrates around one filing family's approach to time-of-flight-assisted structured light imaging, any new filing touching that combination should be checked against it and its continuations before drafting.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaScope a filing around the under-claimed branches
Optical-path design, illumination calibration and display-side depth rendering all carry noticeably lower IPC weight than the core ranging claims, which is where a first-mover filing is more likely to clear prior art cleanly.
Explore white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Time-of-Flight Sensor Image Sensor covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on ToF sensor patents
Within this scoped search, covering ToF depth sensing, indirect ToF pixels and RGB-D imaging under G01S7/486, H01L27/146 and G01S17/894, there are 15 published patent families from 2015 through mid-2026. That is a deliberately narrow slice of the broader ToF sensing literature, chosen to isolate depth-imaging pixel and sensor claims rather than every time-of-flight application. Broader searches across adjacent IPC classes or without the depth-pixel language would return a larger set.
Not in this corpus. Filings run from 2 families in 2017 to a peak of 3 in 2022, with the partial 2026 data showing none yet. Given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, the last one to two years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be, but even with that adjustment the midpoint trend reads flat rather than growing. Anyone using filing volume as a proxy for market heat should treat this as a mature, plateaued claim space rather than an emerging one.
The most-cited document in this corpus is US20150062558A1, 'Time-of-Flight (TOF) Assisted Structured Light Imaging,' with 171 citations within the searched set, followed by its continuation US10061028B2. Their citation counts far exceed anything else in the corpus, marking the structured-light-assisted ToF approach as reference art that later filers routinely build on or design around. High within-corpus citations reflect age and influence, not necessarily current commercial dominance, since older filings simply have had more time to accumulate citations.
US20230367017A1, assigned to Analog Devices and published 2023-11-16, covers a system that takes time-of-flight depth data captured at an arbitrary orientation, identifies a horizontal Z-plane, transforms the data to align with it, and then locates the top and bottom of a box in that transformed data to compute its height, length and width. It is a processing-layer claim built on top of a ToF sensor's raw distance output rather than a claim on the sensor architecture itself, so it is most relevant to anyone building box-dimensioning or logistics-oriented depth applications on a ToF sensor, rather than to sensor or pixel designers.
The IPC composition shows heavy concentration in G01S (ranging, present in all 15 records) and secondary weight in G06T and G01B, with much lighter coverage in G02B (optics), G06F (digital processing) and G01J (radiation measurement). That pattern suggests optical-path design for ToF pixels, illumination and radiometric calibration, and display-side depth rendering are comparatively under-claimed relative to the core ranging and depth-processing art, making them reasonable areas to scope a new filing against a cleaner prior-art background.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Time-of-Flight Sensor Image Sensor covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.