Company
Micron Technology		3731/1	1276/2	1469	498	2.54	2.56	2.20	1.25	5.6	5.4
Advanced Micro Devices		2363/2	940/4	1055	395	2.24	2.38	0.75	1.13	4.9	5.1
Intel		1797/3	1432/1	813	523	2.21	2.74	0.82	0.90	5.3	5.0
Taiwan Semiconductor		1383/4	349/9	514	159	2.69	2.19	0.28	0.28	3.8	4.2
Texas Instruments		1130/5	1007/3	729	626	1.55	1.61	1.87	1.28	6.7	6.5
United Microelectronics		952/6	344/10	538	192	1.77	1.79	0.08	0.28	3.5	4.2
LSI Logic		770/7	466/6	325	197	2.37	2.37	1.06	1.78	5.0	6.0
Hyundai Electronics		745/8	536/5	591	353	1.26	1.52	0.41	0.28	5.1	5.2
STMicroelectronics		593/9	454/7	539	349	1.10	1.30	0.86	0.98	6.7	6.5
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory		499/10	221/12	164	111	3.04	1.99	3.58	1.73	5.8	6.2
Vanguard International Semiconductor		390/11	171/14	131	62	2.98	2.76	0.16	0.26	3.8	3.8
Xilinx		316/12	185/13	114	62	2.77	3.00	0.90	1.19	5.4	5.2
National Semiconductor		286/13	351/8	187	204	1.53	1.72	1.07	1.56	5.8	5.8
Altera		268/14	138/15	97	40	2.76	3.44	5.06	2.14	7.2	6.5
Chartered Semiconductor		261/15	53/18	79	25	3.30	2.07	0.14	0.22	3.5	4.5
Lam Research		228/16	67/17	81	29	2.81	2.28	1.42	0.80	6.6	6.3
Cirrus Logic		223/17	224/11	112	100	1.99	2.24	1.47	1.36	6.7	5.8
Cypress Semiconductors		188/18	130/16	113	64	1.66	2.03	1.42	1.06	5.6	5.2

*average

Indexing Innovation

Technology Review has teamed with CHI Research of Haddon Heights, NJ, to produce the Patent Scorecard, an industry-by-industry ranking of corporate patent portfolios. CHI combines the number of a firm’s patents with other indicators to flesh out this deeper picture of innovation. Here are the specifics:

Technology Strength: This figure, the basis of the rankings, provides an overall assessment of a firm’s intellectual-property power. It is calculated by multiplying the number of a company’s U.S. patents by its Current Impact Index (see below).

Number of Patents: The total number of U.S. patents awarded, excluding design and other special-case inventions.

Current Impact Index: This measure showcases the broader significance of a company’s patents by examining how often its U.S. patents from the previous five years are cited as “prior art” in the current year’s batch. A value of 1.0 represents average citation frequency; so 1.4 would indicate a company’s patents were cited 40 percent more often than average, and so on.

Science Linkage: Patents sometimes cite scientific papers as prior art. This value shows the average number of science references listed in a company’s U.S. patents. A high figure indicates the company is closer to the cutting edge than its competitors.

Technology Cycle Time: An indicator of a firm’s speed in turning leading-edge technology into intellectual property, defined as the median age (in years) of the U.S. patents cited as prior art in the company’s patents.