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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/topcon-solar-cell-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Solar EnergyTOPCon solar cell patents: who leads the field and where filing is still open
A data-backed look at TOPCon solar cell patents: who leads filings, how concentrated the field is, the technology classes in play, and where the white space sits.
249
Published Records
27%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-6%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
CN
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth = 2021 (49 records) → 2024 (46); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 249 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What the TOPCon patent record shows
Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cell design has become one of the most heavily filed architectures in crystalline silicon photovoltaics, and the patent record reflects a technology moving from lab demonstration into mass production. The 249 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, concentrated almost entirely under semiconductor device classification, with secondary claim activity in conductors, coatings, glass compositions and crystal growth. The filing curve rose sharply through the early 2020s and has only recently begun to plateau — a pattern consistent with a technology that reached commercial viability and is now defending manufacturing detail rather than the core concept.
Most activity sits with a small group of large Chinese cell and module manufacturers, with government-linked hydropower and energy groups also active enough to appear in the co-assignee network. The receiving-office split shows China as the dominant filing venue by a wide margin, with the United States and Europe well behind — a signal for where litigation and licensing risk is most likely to surface first.
Filing trend and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on TOPCon Solar Cell 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
The Data
Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 249-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2015-2026
Filings ran at zero in 2017, climbed through the early 2020s, peaked at 58 in 2023, and stood at 46 in 2024 — down 6% from 49 in 2021 but still a mature, active filing rate. 2025 and 2026 figures are undercounts because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
Every record carries a semiconductor device classification (H01L, 100% of 249 records), but a meaningful minority also claim in conductors and insulators (H01B, 8.0%), power devices under H10P (6.0%), coatings and surface deposition (C23C, 4.0%), and smaller pockets in glass compositions, welding/soldering, nanotechnology and crystal growth. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
Shares are the percentage of the 249 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 TOPCon Solar Cell 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 TOPCon Solar Cell Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Most-cited records and a representative filing
Representative Filing
US20250048747A1 — TOPCon solar cell and method for manufacturing the same
RESEARCH & BUSINESS FOUNDATION SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY
A Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact (TOPCon) solar cell, and a method therefor are provided. The TOPCon solar cell includes: a silicon substrate; a tunneling layer formed on a surface of the silicon substrate; a polycrystalline silicon layer formed on a surface of the tunneling layer; a polycrystalline germanium layer formed on a surface of the polycrystalline silicon layer; a lower passivation layer formed on a surface of the polycrystalline germanium layer; and a lower electrode formed on the lower passivation layer and electrically connected to the polycrystalline germanium layer.Filed by Research & Business Foundation Sungkyunkwan University, published 2025-02-06 — notable for introducing a polycrystalline germanium layer between the polysilicon and lower passivation layers, a variant not present in the earlier, more heavily cited Chinese filings.
Highest-cited records in the dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN105762234A | 一种隧穿氧化层钝化接触太阳能电池及其制备方法 | 61 |
| 2 | CN110299422A | 一种激光硼掺杂选择性发射极TOPCon结构电池及其制备方法 | 59 |
| 3 | CN110265494A | 一种局部背场TOPCon太阳能电池及其制备方法 | 39 |
| 4 | CN111628047A | 一种N型TOPCon太阳能电池的制作方法 | 35 |
| 5 | CN113471321A | 一种TOPCon太阳能电池及制造方法 | 31 |
| 6 | CN108336184A | 一种隧穿氧钝化接触晶体硅太阳电池的制备方法 | 31 |
| 7 | CN110739367A | 一种N型TOPCon太阳能电池制备方法 | 26 |
| 8 | CN111987182A | TOPCon太阳能电池及其制造方法 | 22 |
| 9 | CN110690297A | 一种P型隧穿氧化物钝化接触太阳能电池及其制备方法 | 22 |
| 10 | CN216980577U | 电池背面结构及双面TOPCon太阳能电池 | 21 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references — read them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
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. 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 TOPCon Solar Cell 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
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What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Read together, concentration, geography and claim distribution point to where competitive risk is real and where it is not yet contested.
Concentration
26.9% of 249 records
held by the top 5 assignees
The top of the field is genuinely concentrated
Five assignees hold 67 of the 249 records in scope, and the leader alone holds 20. That is a meaningfully tighter grip than a long, flat tail would produce, and it means freedom-to-operate review for core TOPCon cell architecture should start with this small group rather than a broad sweep.
Top 5 combined: 67 records
Filing venue
149 China filings
vs 29 in the US, 27 at the EPO
Enforcement risk is heavily weighted to China
China accounts for the large majority of receiving-office activity, with the United States, Europe, Australia, WIPO and the UK trailing well behind. Any competitive clearance work that only checks US and EPO registers will miss most of the documented claim activity in this field.
Receiving offices: CN 149, US 29, EPO 27
Trend shape
58 filings in 2023
the peak year on record
Volume has plateaued, not collapsed
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 58 in 2023, then eased to 46 in 2024 — a 6% pull-back from 2021's 49, not a decline. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true 2025-2026 volume is still being counted and should not be read as a slowdown yet.
2021: 49 → 2024: 46 (-6%)
Claim spread
8.0% in H01B
conductors and insulators
Secondary claim classes are thin but present
Beyond the near-universal semiconductor device classification, the next-largest secondary class — conductors and insulators — covers only 8.0% of the 249 records, and every class below that falls under 5%. That leaves several adjacent branches, such as crystal growth and nanotechnology applications, with comparatively little claim density.
H01B 8.0%, H10P 6.0%, C23C 4.0%
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 topcon solar cell patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Derived observations on the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on TOPCon Solar Cell 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 from here
The dataset points to a field with a concentrated leadership group and a still-open periphery. These are the natural next steps for turning that into a filing or clearance decision.
Map freedom-to-operate against the concentrated leaders
Start any clearance review with the small group of assignees holding the top combined share, since that is where core TOPCon architecture claims are most likely to collide with new filings.
Explore assignee landscapes in EurekaCheck under-claimed adjacent branches before filing
Crystal growth, nanotechnology applications and welding/soldering each sit under 5% of records, suggesting narrower prior art and more room for a defensible new claim.
Run a white space search in EurekaWeight venue strategy toward China
With the large majority of receiving-office activity concentrated in China, competitive monitoring and enforcement planning that ignores that venue will miss most of the field.
Track filings by venue in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on TOPCon Solar Cell 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 TOPCon solar cell patents
It is concentrated but not monopolised. The top five assignees together hold 26.9% of the 249 records in scope, and the single leading assignee holds 20 records on its own. That leaves a substantial majority of filings spread across a long tail of other companies, research institutes and government-linked energy groups, so the field is competitive below the leadership tier even though the top is tight.
Filing volume peaked at 58 in 2023 and had eased to 46 by 2024, a 6% pull-back from 2021's 49 filings — but this should not be read as a genuine slowdown. Patent publication typically lags the actual filing date by around 18 months, so the counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete and will rise as more records surface. The honest read is a mature, high-volume filing rate that has plateaued rather than one that is declining.
China is the dominant receiving office by a wide margin, with 149 of the tracked filings, compared with 29 in the United States, 27 at the European Patent Office, 13 in Australia, 10 filed via the WIPO PCT route, and 5 in the United Kingdom. Any competitive intelligence or freedom-to-operate work focused only on US or European registers will be looking at a small fraction of the documented activity in this technology.
Every record in scope carries a semiconductor device classification, but a meaningful minority also touch adjacent technical areas: conductors and insulators appear in 8.0% of the 249 records, power device structures in 6.0%, and coating and surface deposition methods in 4.0%. Smaller shares cover glass and enamel compositions, welding and soldering steps, nanotechnology applications, and crystal growth — each under 3% of records, and each a comparatively open area for new claims.
A high citation count inside this dataset means a filing has been referenced often by later applicants working in the same space — it is a signal of influence on how the field developed, not a measure of current commercial value or technical superiority. Because citations accumulate over time, older filings from the mid-2010s and early 2020s naturally lead the most-cited list simply by having existed longer. Newer, potentially more advanced filings may be under-cited only because they have not had time to accumulate references yet.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on TOPCon Solar Cell 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
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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.