Wafer Inspection Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Wafer inspection patents for patterned defects: leaders, filing trends and where the claim space is still open
57.3% of all 3,102 records sit with just five assignees, and the top ten account for 69.4% — this field is heavily concentrated at the top rather than fragmented. Annual filings rose from 79 in 2017 to a peak of 163 in 2021, then eased to 105 by 2024 — a -36% move over that three-year span. Years after 2024 will keep revising upward as later publications land, so the apparent drop-off in 2025-26 should not be read as the field cooling.
- 1KLA CORP22.8%
- 2HITACHI HIGH TECH CORP15.6%
- 3ASML NETHERLANDS BV7.9%
- 4KLA TENCOR TECHNOLOGY CORP6.7%
- 5HITACHI LTD4.2%
See the full wafer inspection for patterned defects analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Questions practitioners ask about this field
Who are the leading patent holders in patterned wafer defect inspection?
The assignee ranking in this dataset is led by a single company with 708 of the 3,102 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 131 and the tenth at 52. The top five combined hold 57.3% of all records and the top ten hold 69.4%, so the field is concentrated rather than fragmented across many small filers. Names associated with this leadership include major inspection-tool and semiconductor equipment makers, though the ranking itself covers 100 companies total, not a curated shortlist.
Is patent filing in wafer inspection technology slowing down?
Filings peaked in 2021 at 163 and eased to 105 by 2024, a -36% move over that span, but this reflects a settling after a surge rather than a collapse — 2017 filings were less than half the 2021 peak. Counts for 2025 and 2026 in this dataset are still low, but that is expected: publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years always look artificially thin until later updates catch up. Judging the trend on 2025-26 numbers alone would be misleading.
What technology areas dominate wafer inspection patent claims?
Material analysis and testing (IPC class G01N) appears on 52.1% of the 3,102 records, making it the single largest technology bucket, but image data processing (G06T) is close behind at 30.9% and semiconductor devices (H01L) at 30.5%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% — they show overlapping claim coverage, not mutually exclusive categories. Narrower classes like photolithography (G03F, 9.7%) and dimensional measurement (G01B, 8.4%) mark smaller but still active pockets of claim activity.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wafer Inspection for Patterned Defects covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.