Two-Phase Cooling Patent Landscape 2026
Two-Phase Cooling Patent Landscape in 2026
Two-phase cooling IP is concentrated among a handful of industrial and aerospace incumbents, with ABB and Westinghouse Electric holding the largest positions among the top hundred filers. The field peaked in 2021 and annual volume has since eased, though the multi-year corpus remains substantial at 850 patent families.
ABB leads a moderately concentrated field anchored by industrial and aerospace incumbents
ABB (Schweiz) AG holds the top position among the hundred largest filers with 91 patent records, followed by Westinghouse Electric Corp at 75 and Hamilton Sundstrand Corp at 59, establishing a clear first tier of large industrial and defense-linked organizations.
The top five filers together account for 24% of the combined total among the hundred largest filers, indicating moderate concentration — meaningful incumbency without outright dominance, leaving room for challengers to accumulate strategic positions.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ABB (Schweiz) AG | 91 | |
| 2 | Westinghouse Electric Corp | 75 | |
| 3 | Hamilton Sundstrand Corp | 59 | |
| 4 | Carrier Corp | 44 | |
| 5 | Intel Corporation | 43 | |
| 6 | Daikin Industries Ltd | 43 | |
| 7 | IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | 42 | |
| 8 | Munters Corp | 39 | |
| 9 | Rolls Royce North American Technologies Inc | 35 | |
| 10 | Northrop Grumman Systems Corp | 31 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering | 24 | |
| 12 | Iberica del Espacio | 19 | |
| 13 | General Electric Co | 19 | |
| 14 | Rini Technologies | 19 | |
| 15 | Isothermal Systems Research | 18 | |
| 16 | The Boeing Company | 18 | |
| 17 | SWALES & ASSOC INC | 18 | |
| 18 | Accelsius LLC | 17 | |
| 19 | Motorola Inc | 17 | |
| 20 | Aavid Laboratories | 17 |
The leaders’ portfolios span heat-exchange apparatus, printed-circuit thermal management, and refrigeration systems, suggesting that competitive advantage is built on breadth of application rather than narrow technology specialization.
Filing data for 2024–2026 is subject to publication lag and likely understates recent activity; conclusions on the most recent period should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity peaked in 2021 and has eased; heat-exchange apparatus dominates the technology mix
The filing trend and technology composition charts together reveal a field that expanded sharply through 2021 and has since moderated, with core heat-transfer IPC classes far outweighing adjacent application domains.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings climbed from 57 records in 2017 to a peak of 151 in 2021, then settled to 105–115 through 2023. The 2024 and 2025 figures appear lower but are affected by publication lag and should not be read as a confirmed structural decline.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F28D (Heat-exchange apparatus) is the dominant branch by a wide margin, followed by F25B (Refrigeration and heat pumps) and H05K (Printed circuits and assemblies). The strong H05K and H01L presence reflects the growing role of two-phase cooling in electronics thermal management, while aerospace (B64G) and nuclear (G21C) branches are materially smaller but present.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Control of system coolant to facilitate two-phase …
A cooling system and method are provided for facilitating two-phase heat transfer from an electronics system including a plurality of electronic devices to be cooled. The cooling system includes a plurality of evaporators coupled to the electronic devices, and a coolant loop for passing system coolant through the evaporators. The coolant loop includes a… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Two-phase cooling system for laptop computers | 250 |
| 2 | Liquid Submerged, Horizontal Computer Server Rack … | 233 |
| 3 | Two phase component cooler | 211 |
| 4 | Method and two-phase spray cooling apparatus | 202 |
| 5 | Liquid cooled condensers for loop heat pipe like e… | 187 |
| 6 | Two-phase heat-transfer systems | 177 |
| 7 | Capillary pumped loop body heat exchanger | 173 |
| 8 | Polymeric heat pipe wick | 173 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of a post-peak filing curve, moderate top-tier concentration, and a technology mix that bridges thermal engineering and electronics opens specific strategic choices for incumbents and new entrants alike.
Field is past its 2021 peak but not contracting structurally
The lifecycle stage is classified as Decline, reflecting that annual filings have eased back from the 2021 peak of 151 records. However, the multi-year corpus of 850 patent families and sustained 2022–2023 activity suggest a mature, stable field rather than an abandoned one. New entrants should expect to compete on application-specific differentiation rather than volume.
Post-peak · 2021 highModerate top-tier concentration with a visible challenger tier
The top five filers hold 24% of the combined total among the hundred largest filers, and no single entity controls an outright majority. Carrier Corp, Intel Corp, and Daikin Industries each hold positions in the 43–44 patent record range, forming a dense second tier within striking distance of the leaders. A focused filing campaign in an adjacent branch could meaningfully shift relative position.
24% top-5 shareCo-filing is rare; Rolls-Royce entities are the most active partners
The most active co-filing pair is Rolls Royce North American Technologies Inc and Rolls Royce Corp, with 9 joint records — likely reflecting intra-group coordination rather than external partnership. Daikin Industries and AAF McQuay have filed 2 joint records, and PIMEMS Inc has one collaboration with the University of California Board of Regents. Ecosystem co-development is not yet a dominant strategy in this field.
Co-filing sparseUS-centric protection; Europe and PCT are secondary but meaningful
The United States is the primary filing jurisdiction with 759 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 350 and WIPO (PCT) at 197. Germany, China, and India are the next-largest national offices. The heavy US weighting reflects the composition of the leading filers but also signals that IP coverage in Asian manufacturing markets — particularly China at 61 records — may be thinner than competitive dynamics would warrant.
US-dominant · CN thinGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Rolls Royce North American Technologies Inc | Rolls Royce Corp | 9 |
| Daikin Industries Ltd | AAF McQuay Inc | 2 |
| PIMEMS Inc | The Regents of the University of California | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
ABB and Westinghouse lead on volume; Munters is the standout recent entrant
The top two filers are established industrial incumbents with broad heat-exchange apparatus portfolios, while the momentum table reveals sharply divergent recent trajectories — most incumbents are declining in filing rate, but Munters Corp and IBM have entered the recent window as new contributors.
ABB (Schweiz) AG
ABB leads with 91 patent records and a technology focus concentrated in F28D 15 (Heat-exchange apparatus), H05K 7 (Printed circuits and assemblies), and H01L 23 (Semiconductor devices), spanning both industrial and electronics cooling. Recent momentum is sharply negative at –86% versus the prior three-year window, indicating that ABB’s portfolio is largely legacy and recent filing activity has dropped significantly.
91 patent recordsMunters Corp
Munters Corp holds 39 patent records overall and is classified as a new entrant in the recent filing window with 35 recent records, making it the most active filer in the current period among the tracked applicants. Its technology emphasis is led by H05K 7 (Printed circuits and assemblies), positioning it squarely in the data center and electronics cooling segment that is driving current market demand.
39 patent records| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Westinghouse Electric Corp | 23 | ▼ -42% |
| Hamilton Sundstrand Corp | 12 | ▬ 0% |
| ABB (Schweiz) AG | 3 | ▼ -86% |
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| Munters Corp | 35 | ▲ new entrant |
| Rolls Royce North American Technologies Inc | 4 | ▼ -79% |
| Intel Corporation | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
| Daikin Industries Ltd | 4 | ▼ -76% |
Under-served branches in semiconductor devices and digital processing warrant monitoring
The whitespace analysis identifies several IPC branches with relatively lower patent record counts within the two-phase cooling corpus. These are observations of relative sparsity; those with plausible technical value and a realistic entry path are noted below.
H01L · Semiconductor devices
With 352 patent records and an 8% share of the corpus, semiconductor device cooling is the largest of the identified adjacent branches yet remains underweighted relative to the scale of the thermal management challenge in advanced packaging and chiplets. The branch sits at the intersection of two-phase fluid dynamics and chip-level integration — a technically demanding but commercially well-motivated space. Filers with existing positions in F28D and H05K would have a natural entry path through die-level or package-level two-phase solutions.
Search this in Eureka →G06F · Electric digital data processing
G06F accounts for 107 patent records and a 2% share, suggesting that system-level software and control architectures for two-phase cooled data center infrastructure are sparsely protected relative to the hardware. As immersion and two-phase spray cooling scale in hyperscale data centers, control algorithms, predictive thermal management, and digital-twin integration represent an adjacent layer with a low current filing density. Entrants with software or AI-based thermal management capabilities face limited incumbent IP resistance in this sub-branch.
Search this in Eureka →Leaders differ markedly by technology route: heat-exchange hardware vs. refrigeration systems vs. electronics integration
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | F28D 15 · Heat-exchange apparatus | H05K 7 · Printed circuits & assemblies | H01L 23 · Semiconductor devices | F28F 13 · Heat-exchanger details | F25B 23 · Refrigeration & heat pumps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABB (Schweiz) AG | Strong · 49 | Strong · 29 | Moderate · 13 | Emerging · 6 | Absent |
| IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) | Strong · 33 | Strong · 25 | Moderate · 11 | Moderate · 7 | Absent |
| Westinghouse Electric Corp | Strong · 62 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Munters Corp | Strong · 22 | Strong · 34 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| PIMEMS Inc | Strong · 29 | Absent | Moderate · 12 | Absent | Absent |
| Intel Corporation | Absent | Strong · 15 | Strong · 15 | Moderate · 6 | Absent |
| Hamilton Sundstrand Corp | Strong · 35 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The analysis covers 850 patent families in scope. The applicant ranking and technology composition figures are measured at the patent-record level, so individual counts reflect all filings across jurisdictions for each record.
ABB (Schweiz) AG leads with 91 patent records among the hundred largest filers, followed by Westinghouse Electric Corp at 75 and Hamilton Sundstrand Corp at 59.
Annual filings peaked at 151 patent records in 2021. Activity has eased since then, reaching 105 in 2022 and 115 in 2023. The 2024 and 2025 figures are likely understated due to publication lag.
The United States is the primary filing jurisdiction with 759 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 350 and WIPO (PCT) at 197. Germany, China, and India are the largest national offices after the US.
F28D (Heat-exchange apparatus) is the dominant branch, followed by F25B (Refrigeration and heat pumps) and H05K (Printed circuits and assemblies). The presence of H05K and H01L reflects the growing application of two-phase cooling in electronics and data center thermal management.
Co-filing is uncommon in this field. The most active partnership is between Rolls Royce North American Technologies Inc and Rolls Royce Corp with 9 joint records. Daikin Industries and AAF McQuay have 2 joint records, and PIMEMS Inc has one collaboration with the University of California Board of Regents.
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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.
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