GaN-on-Silicon Patent Landscape, 2020: 2,500+ Patents, IP Trends, Applications, Technologies, Ranking of Main Patent Assignees, Established & New Entrants, Key Players

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Jan 28, 2020, 11:30 ET

DUBLIN, Jan. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "2020 GaN-on-Silicon Patent Landscape" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

GaN-on-Silicon activity is now driven by micro-LED, GaN Power and GaN RF applications. Who is leading the IP competition in these different areas? Who are the emerging players?

Key Features of the Report

PDF with > 200 slides
Excel file > 2,500 patents
IP trends, including time-evolution of published patents, countries of patent filings, etc.
Patent segmentation per application: Optoelectronics and Photonics, Power, RF, PV and Sensors
Ranking of main patent assignees
Key players' IP position and relative strength of their patent portfolios
Established players and new entrants
IP profile of key players, their key patents and their recent IP activity
Patents recently expired and patents near expiration date
Excel database containing all patents analyzed in the report, including technology and application segmentations

GaN-on-Si intellectual property (IP): Historical players step back, leading to a substantial reconfiguration of the patent landscape.

The 2015-2020 period has shown tremendous and decisive changes regarding the strategy of players in the GaN-on-Si landscape, beginning with Toshiba's withdrawal from the white LED market and the acquisition of International Rectifier (IR) by Infineon in 2015. At that time, Toshiba and IR were already leading the GaN-on-Si patent landscape, while several historical IP players including Panasonic, Sanken Electric and Toyoda Gosei had already slowed down their patenting activity in the field.

Furthermore, after IR, Transphorm, Panasonic and GaNSystems started sampling and commercializing their first GaN-on-Si power devices in 2010-2015, a second wave of companies has entered the playground in the last few years, including ON Semiconductor, Dialog, Navitas, VisIC. More companies, such as STMicroelectronics, are expected soon, demonstrating the growing interest for GaN-on-Si technology from players in the power electronics business.

In this report, the publisher has thoroughly investigated the patent landscape related to GaN-on-Si based optoelectronics and photonics, power electronics, radio frequency (RF) electronics, sensors and photovoltaics (PV) covering the whole GaN-on-Si supply chain. Today, interestingly, the GaN-on-Si patent landscape exhibits strategies differing substantially between the numerous IP players currently aiming at consolidating their IP position.

Optoelectronics and Photonics: Emerging applications driving IP activity

Starting in the late 1990s, GaN-on-Si patenting activity was driven by LED applications. The competition for GaN-on-Si LED intellectual property used to be a very Japanese affair, until the late 2000s when US players like Bridgelux and Micron Technology and Chinese players like Lattice Power emerged. At the same time, Japanese IP leaders sharply decreased their IP activity in the field, even shrinking the size of their portfolios, except for Toshiba, who remarkably accelerated patent filings in 2010-2015, while acquiring Bridgelux-related assets in 2013.

Since Toshiba eventually stepped back from LEDs in 2015, the main IP players remaining active in the field are Samsung, Osram and a new entrant, Zhongtuo Optoelectronics. However, patenting activity is now powered by a new range of applications, related to displays, which involves micro-LEDs, including nanowire-based technologies, and smart lighting, moving towards a More than Moore market.

Power Electronics: US and European IP leaders backed by patent portfolios of Japanese historical players

Infineon made a giant step in the GaN-on-Si landscape by acquiring IR in 2015 but had to consolidate the move by licensing Panasonic's patented HD-GIT technology and by further strengthening its own portfolio as attested by significant IP activity since then. The next IP leader behind Infineon is Transphorm, which has taken several shortcuts as well, by establishing strong partnerships, including IP transfers, with Fujitsu and Furukawa Electric in 2010-2015.

Likewise, multiple startups were established to develop GaN power technology based on GaN-on-Si, backed by academic and established industrial IP players in the patent landscape, such as Qromis, Navitas, EpiGaN and ExaGaN.

Patenting activity in the field of power electronics remarkably peaked in 2017, due to the entry of several Chinese new entrants in the patent landscape, including FMIC, Innoscience, Peking University, Shenzhen Jing Xiang Technologies and South China University of Technology, focusing on different aspects of GaN-on-Si technology, and filing patents in China mainly.

RF electronics: Macom and Intel have taken the lead on GaN-on-Si RF technology

There is a large discrepancy between the RF GaN-on-Si patent landscape and the overall RF GaN patent landscape, described in our report RF GaN Patent Landscape Analysis 2019. Macom, which managed to keep IP rights on part of IR's GaN-on-Si portfolio after its acquisition by Infineon, is the main player continuing the development of RF GaN-on-Si technology. Fujitsu, an historical GaN-on-Si IP player, has strongly reduced its related IP activity.

The next leading patent applicant in the field is Intel, which is particularly interested in novel approaches towards monolithic integration with Si CMOS for RF electronics for More-than-Moore systems-on-chips.

Useful Excel patent database

This report also includes an Excel database with the over 2,800 patents and patent applications analyzed in this study. This useful patent database allows for multi-criteria searches and includes patent publication numbers, hyperlinks to the original documents, priority date, title, abstract, patent assignees, patent's current legal status, and technological and application segments.

Key Topics Covered

1. Introduction

Market trends
Scope of the report
Objectives of the report
Key feature of the report
Main assignees cited in the report

2. Methodology

Patent search, selection and analysis
Terminology for patent analysis

3. Summary

4. GaN-on-Si Patent Landscape

Time evolution of patent publications
Leading patent applicants
Main patent applicants by country of head office
Main IP players: Number of patents and current legal status
Geographic coverage of patent filings and corresponding current legal status of patents
Main patent assignees vs. Countries of granted/pending patents
Time evolution of main patent applicants
IP profiles
Patents recently expired
Patents near expiration date
Conclusion
Patent applicants

5. Optoelectronics & Photonics

Time evolution of patent publications
Leading patent applicants
Main patent applicants by country of head office
Main IP players: Number of patents and current legal status
Geographic coverage of patent filings and corresponding current legal status of patents
Main patent assignees vs. Countries of granted/pending patents
IP Leadership
Time evolution of main patent applicants
IP profiles
Conclusion
Patent applicants

6. Power Electronics

Time evolution of patent publications
Leading patent applicants
Main patent applicants by country of head office
Main IP players: Number of patents and current legal status
Geographic coverage of patent filings and corresponding current legal status of patents
Main patent assignees vs. Countries of granted/pending patents
IP Leadership
Time evolution of main patent applicants
IP profiles
Conclusion
Patent applicants

7. RF Electronics

Time evolution of patent publications
Leading patent applicants
Main patent applicants by country of head office
Main IP players: Number of patents and current legal status
Geographic coverage of patent filings and corresponding current legal status of patents
Main patent assignees vs. Countries of granted/pending patents
Time evolution of main patent applicants
IP profiles
Conclusion
Patent applicants

8. PV Sensors

Patent applicants
Segmentations
IP profiles
Conclusion
Patent applicants

9. Conclusion

Companies Mentioned

Toshiba
Sharp
Panasonic
Sanken Electric
Infineon/International Rectifier
Intel
Samsung
University Beijing
Transphorm
Fujitsu
Lattice Power
FMIC - Founder Microelectronics
imec
South China University of Technology
Toyoda Gosei
cea - French Alternatives Energies And Atomic Energy Commission
Furukawa Electric
Macom/Nitronex
IQE
TSMC
Osram Opto Semiconductors
CETC - China Electronics Technology Group Corporation
Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications
Zhongtuo Optoelectronics Technology
Innoscience
Shenzhen Jing Xiang Technology
Showa Denko
Aledia
Fuji Electric
LG Innotek
Coorstek
Qromis
glo
Institute of Semiconductors (CAS)
Corning
Sumitomo Electric
HRL Laboratories
EPC - Efficient Power Conversion
MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Allos Semiconductors
Nagoya Institute of Technology
Navitas Semiconductor
NGK Insulators
NTT - Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
Micron Technology
Hitachi
Toyota Central R&D Labs
STmicroelectronics
SK Siltron
Enkris Semiconductor
Shin-Etsu
Bridgelux
Rohm
Epistar
Oki Electric Industry
Tsing Hua University
ITRI - Industrial Technology Research Institute
Samsung Electro Mechanics
CNRS - French National Research Center
Exagan
IBM
ETRI - Electronics & Telecommunications Research Institute
VisIC Technologies
Mitsubishi Electric
Renesas Electronics
Texas Instruments
Nanchang University
HiWafer
Sino Nitride Semiconductor
National Sun Yat Sen University
Soitec/EpiGaN

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2p98wl

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