Dr. Yamazaki, founder of Semiconductor Energy Laboratory and holder of the Guinness World Record for most patents with over 20,000 patents, describes how the intellectual property creation cycle is transforming the semiconductor industry.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. (SEL) was established in 1980 by Dr. Shunpei Yamazaki with a mission to advance the world through research and development. Built on the "Intellectual Property Creation Cycle" philosophy, SEL operates a unique business model where inventions from creative R&D are systematically patented, and the licensing revenues are reinvested into next-generation research, creating a self-sustaining innovation ecosystem without traditional manufacturing.

SEL's technological journey began with solar cell research, which provided the foundation for expansion into thin film transistors (TFTs), integrated circuits, and OLED displays. Today, many of SEL's patents are used in smartphones, televisions, and other devices with liquid crystal displays and OLED displays using crystalline oxide semiconductors.

The start of SEL’s innovation journey: the flash memory

Dr. Yamazaki's innovation journey began with a groundbreaking invention that would reshape the digital storage landscape.

In 1970, while still guided by the teachings of his mentor Dr. Yogoro Kato, Dr. Yamazaki invented the basic device of non-volatile memory, what we know today as flash memory (a silicon floating gate non-volatile memory with a control gate).

The invention helped create an enormous market for flash memory, with the USB flash drive segment alone reaching $9.84 billion in 2024[1]. The non-volatile memory device Dr. Yamazaki created in 1971, was verified by SEL in 2018, nearly half a century later, to still be capable of repeated writing and erasing operations.

This fundamental invention resulted in 41 patents including the core Japanese Patent No. 886343 (Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 50-36955) and US Patent No. 3878549, covering a comprehensive range of technologies including integration and drive methods. These patents had significant commercial impact. The royalties earned from licensing them to various companies provided enough capital for Dr. Yamazaki to establish SEL in 1980.

Crystalline oxide semiconductors for ultra-low-power devices

Building on decades of research in thin-film semiconductors originally developed for solar cells, SEL achieved a major breakthrough in 2012. The company discovered and reported that FETs (Field Effect Transistor) using crystalline oxide semiconductors, including their proprietary CAAC-OS®[3] (C-axis aligned crystal oxide semiconductor), exhibit extremely low off-state current levels of yA/μm (10⁻²⁴ A/μm).

This value is ten orders of magnitude lower than the off-state current of silicon FETs currently widely used in VLSIs (Very Large Scale Integration). A revolutionary improvement was documented in Japanese Patent No. 6697066, US Patent No. 9478564, and also presented at the IEEE International Memory Workshop (T. Matsuzaki et al., Proc. IEEE Int. Memory Workshop, 185 (2011)).

Winner of the SID Display of the Year Gold Award

The commercial validation of this discovery came swiftly. In partnership with Sharp Corporation, SEL jointly developed liquid crystal displays using crystalline oxide semiconductors. In 2012, they achieved the world's first mass production of high-resolution, low-power smartphones equipped with this technology. This achievement earned Sharp Corporation and SEL the prestigious 2013 Display of the Year Gold Award from The Society for Information Display (SID).

Today, crystalline oxide semiconductors are widely used in smartphones, televisions, and other devices utilizing liquid crystal displays and OLED displays. The market size of liquid crystal displays using oxide semiconductors reached $9.6 billion (approximately 1 trillion yen) in 2020 and 2021 combined[2], validating SEL's strategic investment in this technology.

Guinness World Record for Inventor with Most Patents

SEL's competitive advantage stems from its fully integrated approach to intellectual property. The company's in-house Intellectual Property Division handles everything from preparing patent specifications to filing applications and managing patent examination procedures across jurisdictions. By managing the entire process from R&D to patent grant internally, SEL obtains high-quality patents more quickly than competitors, with IP specialists working in close collaboration with researchers to capture the full scope of each invention.

The results speak for themselves. SEL has built an impressive portfolio of more than 10,000 patents in oxide semiconductors (leading the world in this field), more than 7,000 patents in OLED, more than 1,000 patents in rechargeable batteries and has filed more than 3,500 PCT applications under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Image: SEL

These patents are strategically registered across key markets including Japan, the United States, China, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (Province of China), and Europe, some of them efficiently achieved through the PCT system.

Image: SEL

And on July 9, 2025, Dr. Yamazaki renewed his GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for "Most patents credited as inventor" with 20,120 patents, his third record update.

This intellectual property fortress supports SEL's technological performance and competitiveness, generating licensing revenue that fuels the "IP Creation Cycle" while establishing SEL as an essential partner for manufacturers worldwide.

Ultra-low power consumption for energy-efficient AI processing

SEL is pushing beyond displays into large-scale integrated circuits with its crystalline oxide semiconductors (OSLSI®), targeting AR/VR displays, next-generation memory, and analog in-memory computing (AiMC) for energy-efficient AI processing. Manufacturing partnerships are already being established worldwide to bring OSLSI technology to mass production.

The timing couldn't be more critical. Global warming and the explosive growth of AI have sparked a power consumption crisis, with data centers consuming enormous amounts of electricity. SEL's answer is elegant: reduce power consumption at its source—the semiconductor itself. Their crystalline oxide semiconductors feature extremely low off-state current, dramatically cutting the energy requirements of AI computing infrastructure.

Looking ahead, SEL is investing heavily in next-generation semiconductor material, representing the company's continued commitment to the "intellectual property creation cycle." Upon updating his Guinness World Record in July 2025 with 20,120 patents, Dr. Yamazaki articulated this vision: "More than 20,000 patents are the result of about 60 years of research. Encouraged by this record, I will continue to promote development of technologies such as ultra-low power consumption LSIs and analog AI that can help prevent global warming." Through strategic use of the PCT system, SEL continues to secure multinational patent protection for these innovations, ensuring that the company's solutions can be deployed globally to address the climate crisis while maintaining competitive advantage in the semiconductor industry.

1.Referenced from “USB Flash Drive Market” | Share | Trend | Revenue Report by 2028”, ↩ Back

2.Referenced from the Oxide TFT Market section in Market Size Trends and Forecasts by Sector in The Current State and Future Outlook of the 2022 Display-Related Market, Fuji Chimera Research Institute, Inc., Converted from Japanese yen to US dollars using exchange rates of 1USD = 106.82 JPY (2020 average exchange rate) and 1USD= 109.80 JPY (2021 average exchange rate). ↩ Back

3.CAAC-OS and OSLSI are Japanese registered trademarks of Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. (Nos. 5759619 and 5698906). 

Source：Semiconductor Energy Laboratory: How IP Drives Semiconductor Innovations