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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/ultrapure-water-production-for-fabs-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Electronic Gases & ChemicalsUltrapure Water Production for Fabs: Patent Landscape 2026
- 17.4% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 752 of 4,322 records in scope, but the ranking runs 100 companies deep — this is a field with a long tail, not a duopoly.
- Filing activity peaked in 2021 at 266 records. and has fallen 48% by 2024 (266 → 137), though 2025-2026 counts are still filling in as publications lag filing by roughly 18 months.
- Water treatment and analysis dominate the claim space. C02F (water treatment) and G01N (material analysis) together tag well over a third of records, while H01L (semiconductor devices) appears on only 5.3% — a sign that fab-specific integration claims remain comparatively sparse.
4,322
Published Records
17%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-48%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (266 records) with 2024 (137) — 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 4,322 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Ultrapure water is a gating input for semiconductor fabrication: even trace boron, organics or particles can compromise a wafer process. The patent activity captured here spans the full production chain — membrane degassing, resistivity measurement, particle counting, boron removal and biofilm control — rather than any single treatment step. That breadth is visible in the technology composition, where water and wastewater treatment (C02F) sits alongside material analysis (G01N) and separation processes (B01D) as co-equal claim territories.
The 4,322 records in scope run from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with filing concentrated in the 2019-2023 window. A single-family view is used for the assignee ranking so that jurisdictional refiling and continuations do not inflate any one company's apparent footprint.
Filing activity by year
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Ultrapure Water Production for Fabs 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 trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 4,322-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density today.
A 2021 peak, then a real pullback
Filings rose from 156 in 2017 to a peak of 266 in 2021, then declined to 137 by 2024 — a 48% drop over that three-year span. Because publication trails filing by about 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts (down to 12 by the cut-off) understate actual recent filing and should not be read as a continuation of the decline.
Treatment and analysis outweigh integration claims
C02F (water & wastewater treatment) and A61K (medicinal preparations) are the two most-tagged subclasses at 20.2% and 19.2% of records respectively, followed closely by G01N (material analysis, 15.6%) and B01D (separation processes, 15.2%). H01L (semiconductor devices) trails at 5.3%, suggesting that fab-integration-specific claims are a smaller slice of this corpus than the underlying water-chemistry and measurement claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,322 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 Ultrapure Water Production for Fabs covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Ultrapure Water Production for Fabs with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ultrapure water production for fabs and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
A representative filing and the most-cited prior art
Representative filing
Management method of ultrapure water production system
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
A management method for a boron removal tower with sample ports at different resin heights, used to determine the replacement cycle of the boron adsorption resin by tracking passing flow rate — filed by Samsung Electronics.US20230264981A1 · filed 2023-08-24
Most-cited records in this corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5985309A | Preparation of particles for inhalation | 1,842 |
| 2 | WO1998031346A1 | Preparation of particles for inhalation | 1,554 |
| 3 | WO1999066903A2 | Large porous particles emitted from an inhaler | 1,140 |
| 4 | US6214560B1 | Analyte assay using particulate labels | 709 |
| 5 | WO2007024323A2 | Nanoparticle fabrication methods, systems, and materials | 416 |
| 6 | US6248469B1 | Composite solid polymer electrolyte membranes | 408 |
| 7 | US20030170613A1 | Rapid and sensitive detection of cells and viruses | 383 |
| 8 | US7550216B2 | Composite solid polymer electrolyte membranes | 367 |
| 9 | WO2006031554A2 | Methods for preventing, removing, reducing, or disrupting biofilm | 351 |
| 10 | US20090291062A1 | Protein formulations and methods of making same | 346 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate them — treat this as a signal of influence within the searched corpus, not a ranking of current technical 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 Ultrapure Water Production for Fabs 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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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three findings that shape where a new filing is likely to compete against dense prior art, and where the record base is thinner.
Concentration
17.4%
of 4,322 records held by the top 5
Leadership is real but not dominant
The top five assignees combined account for 17.4% of all 4,322 records, and the top ten reach 24.2%. That leaves roughly three-quarters of filing activity distributed across a 100-company ranking with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants — a field open to new entrants rather than gated by a handful of blocking portfolios.
Assignee ranking, 100 companies
Momentum
-48%
2021 → 2024 filing change
A real pullback from a 2021 peak
Filings peaked at 266 in 2021 and fell to 137 by 2024, a documented 48% decline over that span. This is the most recent period that can be treated as complete; 2025-2026 figures are still filling in under the usual 18-month publication lag and should not be read as continued decline.
2017-2024 trend
Technology mix
20.2% vs 5.3%
C02F share vs H01L share
Treatment claims outweigh fab-integration claims
Water and wastewater treatment (C02F) tags 20.2% of records, roughly four times the 5.3% share tagged with semiconductor devices (H01L). Filings that combine ultrapure water chemistry directly with fab-specific tool integration sit in a comparatively thinner slice of the claim space.
IPC subclass shares, 4,322 records
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 ultrapure water production for fabs, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Ultrapure Water Production for Fabs 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 activity has cooled
Recent-year momentum figures show pullback across several of the historically active filers, which is consistent with the broader 2021-2024 decline rather than any single company's retreat.
Momentum check
-80% YoY
Procter & Gamble, latest year
Consumer-chemicals filers are pulling back
Procter & Gamble's filing count in this corpus dropped to 2 in the latest year, an 80% year-over-year decline, echoing the broader post-2021 pullback across the field rather than a fab-specific retreat.
Recent-year momentum data
Momentum check
0 filings
Toray, Organo, Applied Materials — latest year
Several historically active filers show zero latest-year activity
Toray Industries, Organo Corp and Applied Materials each show zero filings in the latest year captured, with Toray specifically down 100% year-over-year. Given the 18-month publication lag, this understates true recent activity and should be read cautiously rather than as an exit signal.
Recent-year momentum data
Collaboration
10 pairs
co-assignee pairings identified
Co-filing is limited and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, with the strongest pairing far above the others in frequency. Most assignees in this space file independently rather than through joint-development structures.
Co-assignee pair analysis
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Procter & Gamble Co | 2 | -80% |
| Toray Industries, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Organo Corporation | 0 | — |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Encapsys LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Albemarle Corporation | 0 | — |
| Xerox Corporation | 0 | — |
| Kurita Water Industries Ltd. | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Ultrapure Water Production for Fabs 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
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking or identifying a filing gap.
Map claim boundaries around the leading portfolios
With the top 5 holding 17.4% of records and a long tail behind them, a freedom-to-operate review should focus on the specific claim language of the leading filers rather than assuming blocking coverage across the whole field.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the 2021 peak against your own filing calendar
The -48% shift from 2021 to 2024 is a field-wide pattern, not necessarily a signal about any one competitor's strategy. Compare it against a specific company's own filing calendar before drawing conclusions.
Run a custom trend query in EurekaInvestigate the under-claimed integration branches
H01L's comparatively low 5.3% share alongside C02F's 20.2% suggests fab-integration-specific claims are thinner than the underlying chemistry and measurement claims. That gap is a reasonable starting point for a first-filing search.
Search white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Ultrapure Water Production for Fabs 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 this landscape
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies drawn from the 4,322 records in scope, with the leading assignee holding 367 records. The top five combined account for 17.4% of all records and the top ten for 24.2%, which means concentration exists at the very top but the great majority of filing activity is spread across a long tail of smaller filers. No single company or small group controls the field outright.
Filing volume rose from 156 records in 2017 to a peak of 266 in 2021, then declined to 137 by 2024 — a documented 48% drop over that three-year span. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear much lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a continuing collapse in activity. The safest complete read of the trend currently ends at 2024.
Water and wastewater treatment (C02F) is the most-tagged subclass at 20.2% of the 4,322 records, closely followed by medicinal preparations (A61K) at 19.2%, material analysis and testing (G01N) at 15.6%, and separation processes such as filtration (B01D) at 15.2%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as claim density per category rather than a breakdown of a whole.
Semiconductor device integration (H01L) appears on only 5.3% of records, a noticeably thinner share than the treatment and analysis categories that dominate the corpus. This points to comparatively open space around claims that tie ultrapure water chemistry directly to fab tool integration, such as in-line sensing or reclaim-loop control built into specific process tools, rather than generic water treatment claims.
US20230264981A1, filed by Samsung Electronics in 2023, describes a management method for a boron removal tower that uses sample ports positioned at different resin heights to monitor passing flow rate and determine when the boron adsorption resin needs replacement. Its scope is specifically the resin-replacement scheduling method tied to multi-height sampling, not boron removal or resin adsorption generally. A workable design-around would need to avoid the specific sampling-and-scheduling mechanism rather than the underlying boron removal chemistry.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Ultrapure Water Production for Fabs 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.