Prospects and trends in the development of terahertz technologies: patent landscape

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of areas where terahertz radiation is applicable with the hwlp of a patent papers review, as well as to obtaining knowledge about the invention activity changes in this area over the past 35 years.
Orbit patent databases’ capabilities were used to complete this analysis. Data search was conducted by keywords “terahertz” or “THz.” The searches were neither limited by submission dates, by priorities, nor by the country. A comprehensive analysis will allow to determine a more than 7389 patent-analog families’ aplications submitted in the period between 1980 and 2017 years. Statistical processing of obtained documents has been completed with the assistance of program software, indicated in the database. It was revealed that terahertz technologies have significant prospects to be applied in various areas; a fact, that is confirmed by an identified range of fields, where electromagnetic radiation of terahertz spectrum is applicable and is constantly growing. The dynamics of patenting is characterized by annual stable positive growth in the number of applications for inventions in the researched area. The highest number of inventions was identified in the field of instrumentation technologies, optics, telecommunications, semiconductor technologies, and medicine. Additionally, there was analyzed the state of patenting over the course of last five years. Examples of inventions were given. There were identified leading countries and companies in the researched area.