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/tokamak-fusion-reactor-control-system-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Nuclear Energy · Patent LandscapeTokamak Fusion Reactor Control System Patents: Filing Trends and White Space
- Sixteen families total, with peak filing of only 3 in 2024 — this is still a small, unconsolidated field, not a crowded one.
- China and Russia dominate the filing offices, with 6 filings each, while the US, EPO, Canada and WIPO each show a single filing — jurisdictional coverage outside China and Russia is thin.
- The most-cited record dates to 2002, and its divertor-filtering claims (42 citations) still anchor prior art that anyone working on divertor-integrated control has to design around.
16
Published Records
+200%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
CN
Leading Jurisdiction
11
Active Filers Ranked
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 records) with 2024 (3) — 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.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
Tokamak control system patents sit at the intersection of plasma physics and real-time control engineering: claims cover magnetic shape and current control, real-time plasma control loops, and disruption avoidance — the algorithms and hardware that keep a superheated plasma column confined and shut it down safely before it damages the reactor. The search set here is narrow by design, combining tokamak-specific terminology with control-system claim language and IPC codes for fusion reactors (G21B), plasma devices (H05H) and control systems (G05B).
Because this is a pre-commercial technology, the corpus is small relative to mainstream energy patent classes, and filing activity through the most recent year is understated — publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 counts will rise as later applications publish.
Filing activity by year, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System 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 composition
Sixteen published families span a decade of sparse, uneven activity, concentrated in a handful of IPC subclasses that trace the physical structure of a tokamak control stack.
A flat, low-volume filing curve
Filing starts at 1 in 2017, peaks at 3 in 2024, and sits at 1 at the 2022 midpoint — there is no sustained growth curve here, just intermittent filing from a small set of institutional actors. Read the 2025-2026 dip as a publication-lag artefact, not a real slowdown.
Fusion reactor claims dominate, control-software claims trail
G21B (fusion reactors) covers 14 of 16 records and H05H (plasma and particle devices) covers 6, confirming most filings anchor to reactor hardware rather than pure software. G05B (control systems) appears in 5 records and G06F (digital data processing) in 4 — real-time control logic is present but secondary to the physical apparatus it governs, and G06N (AI-based computing) appears in only 1 record, suggesting algorithmic plasma control is largely unclaimed territory so far.
Shares are the percentage of the 16 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 Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about tokamak fusion reactor control system and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
The records anchoring this space
Featured Record
Divertor filtering element for a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor
EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
A divertor for a TOKAMAK nuclear fusion reactor, having at least one target element for intercepting the path of contaminating particles from a toroidal channel in which plasma is formed and confined; and at least one grille structure interposed between a catch region, for catching the contaminating particles, and the input of a plasma purifying device. The grille structure is fitted with a layered structure of threadlike felt material facing the catch region and through which flows a mixture of deuterium, tritium, helium and impurities flowing through the grille structure.Filed by the European Community, published 2002-11-21. With 42 citations, this is the single most-referenced record in the set — its EPO sibling (8 citations) shares the same claim scope.
Most-cited tokamak control records
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20020172316A1 | Divertor filtering element for a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor; divertor employing the filtering element; an… | 42 |
| 2 | RU2702137C1 | Method of forming magnetic model of shape and current of plasma with feedback in tokamak | 12 |
| 3 | EP1063871A1 | Divertorfiltering element for a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor, divertor employing the filtering element and … | 8 |
| 4 | RU2668231C1 | System for controlling instability of the internal plasma disruption in the real time mode in tokamak type pl… | 6 |
| 5 | CN117872727A | 一种用于聚变实验堆偏滤器的集成热防护与脱靶控制方法 | 5 |
| 6 | RU2773508C1 | Method for magnetic control of plasma in tokamak in real time and device for its implementation | 4 |
| 7 | CA2370090A1 | Divertor filtering element for a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor; divertor employing the filtering element; an… | 3 |
| 8 | CN117784589A | 一种用于聚变等离子体的辐射功率比例控制方法 | 1 |
Citation counts favour older records in any searched corpus — treat this table as a map of influence on later filings, not a ranking of current technical relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (8 of 8 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System 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
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 say
Three patterns stand out once the filing trend, IPC mix and geography are read together.
Filing Volume
16 families, peak 3 in 2024
total published families
A small field, not a mature one
High filing density elsewhere in energy patents signals occupied claim space; here the opposite signal applies — low absolute volume means most control-system approaches are still open to be claimed, not that the underlying technology is unproven.
Peak year 2024 = 3 filings
Geography
China 6, Russia 6
filings by receiving office
Filing activity concentrates in two offices
China and Russia each account for 6 of the filings in this set, while the US, EPO, Canada and WIPO combined show only 3 — a filer targeting broad commercial protection outside those two jurisdictions currently faces very little competing prior art to search against.
US, EPO, CA, WIPO: 1 filing each
Claim Focus
G21B in 14 of 16 records
IPC subclass coverage
Hardware claims outnumber software claims
Fusion-reactor apparatus claims (G21B) appear in 14 of 16 records against just 5 for control systems (G05B) and 1 for AI-based computing (G06N) — the algorithmic side of plasma control, especially machine-learning-driven disruption prediction, has barely been claimed.
G06N (AI computing): 1 record
Collaboration
7 co-assignee pairs
co-filing relationships
A tight, repeat-collaboration core
The strongest co-assignee pairs — Matera Roberto with Cazzola Carlo, Matera Roberto with Boscary Jean, and Cazzola Carlo with Boscary Jean — each recur twice, pointing to a small European team filing jointly across multiple records rather than a broad multi-institution consortium.
Top pairs recur twice each
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 tokamak fusion reactor control system, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System 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 holds these claims
No single assignee dominates this set; institutional filers from China, Russia and the EU each hold a handful of records, and momentum has stalled across the board in the latest year.
Institutional Filer
0 in latest year
YoY momentum
Chinese Academy of Sciences (Hefei Institutes)
The Hefei Institutes of Physical Science filing shows -100% YoY momentum, with zero filings in the latest year after prior activity — consistent with the broader dip that publication lag likely explains rather than a genuine pullback.
-100% YoY
Institutional Filer
0 in latest year
YoY momentum
European Union (represented by the European Commission)
EU-backed filings, including the European Community's early divertor patent, show no activity in the latest year — the most-cited record in the whole set traces back to this filer, giving it outsized influence despite low recent output.
42 citations on lead record
Institutional Filer
0 in latest year
YoY momentum
Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU)
This federal state budgetary institution holds real-time plasma disruption control claims and, like the other named assignees, shows no filings in the most recent year — Russian receiving-office volume in this set is high, but concentrated in a small number of named filers.
Part of Russia's 6 filings
Recent-year momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 0 | -100% |
| European Union, represented by the European Commission | 0 | — |
| Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU) | 0 | — |
| MATERA ROBERTO | 0 | — |
| CAZZOLA CARLO | 0 | — |
| BOSCARY JEAN | 0 | — |
| State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom | 0 | — |
| European Community | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System 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 analysis
This landscape is a starting point for freedom-to-operate and whitespace decisions, not a substitute for a full claim-by-claim review.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on divertor control claims
The 2002 European Community record and its EPO sibling anchor 42 and 8 citations respectively — any commercial divertor-integrated control design should be checked against these claims directly before development proceeds.
Search full-text claims in EurekaTrack the AI-driven disruption prediction gap
With only 1 record classified under G06N against 14 under G21B, algorithmic disruption prediction is largely unclaimed — worth monitoring for new entrants before the space fills in.
Set an alert in EurekaWatch Chinese and Russian filings for onward international filing
Six of sixteen families each originate from China and Russia; whether any convert to PCT or EPO filings will signal which assignees intend commercial-scale, multi-jurisdiction protection.
Monitor family expansion in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System 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 about tokamak control system patents
This landscape identifies 16 published patent families matching plasma control, magnetic control, real-time control and disruption-avoidance claims within tokamak-specific IPC codes (G21B, H05H, G05B) between 2015 and mid-2026. That is a small corpus compared to mainstream energy technologies, reflecting the pre-commercial state of fusion control engineering. Filing peaked at just 3 records in 2024, and counts for 2025-2026 will likely rise as pending applications publish, since publication typically lags filing by about 18 months.
No single company or institution dominates this field; filings are spread across a handful of academic and government institutions including China's Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, the European Union via the European Commission, and Russia's Lomonosov Moscow State University. A small European team of named inventors also recurs across multiple co-filed records. This distribution suggests the field is still at the research-institution stage rather than consolidated around a small number of commercial leaders.
China and Russia each account for 6 of the 16 filings in this dataset, making them the dominant receiving offices by a wide margin. The United States, the European Patent Office, Canada and the WIPO PCT route each show only a single filing. Anyone planning commercial protection outside China and Russia should note that the competing prior art landscape in those other jurisdictions is currently thin.
US20020172316A1, filed by the European Community and published in 2002, claims a divertor filtering element for a tokamak fusion reactor, along with the divertor and reactor that employ it. It is the most-cited record in this landscape at 42 citations, and a nearly identical EPO filing (EP1063871A1) adds 8 more, giving the underlying design outsized influence over later divertor-integrated control filings. Anyone designing a divertor that intercepts and filters contaminating particles from the plasma channel should review this claim scope directly.
The IPC composition shows heavy concentration in reactor hardware (G21B, 14 of 16 records) and plasma devices (H05H, 6 records), but only 1 record classified under AI-based computing (G06N) and 5 under general control systems (G05B). That gap points to under-claimed sub-areas such as machine-learning-based disruption prediction, real-time feedback shape-control software, and digital-twin plasma modelling — branches where the physical reactor claims are dense but the algorithmic control layer is largely open.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System 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
Research Tokamak Fusion Reactor Control System in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole tokamak fusion reactor control system 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.