AMD, Altera, ADI are top 3 semiconductor innovators by patent metric

Thomson Reuters has published its latest "The top hundred most innovative companies in the world" . As usual the semiconductor and electronics companies have dominated the list. Around 40% of the Thomson Reuters' top hundred most innovative companies are into electronics engineering, which includes semiconductor and electronic components, computer hardware and telecommunication equipment. Thomson Reuters' ranking is based on patents metrics. These days there are some opinions in the industry that every innovation may not require patenting, it is better to explore the market opportunity rather than technology patenting. So in that sense the company which is not ranked in this list might be innovating but have not patented all of its inventions. However to some extent patent based ranking signifies and validates the innovation capabilities of the companies. In the semiconductor domain, the top three innovators are processor chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, FPGA maker Altera and analog/mixed signal, MEMS and DSP device maker Analog Devices. The world's number one semiconductor chip maker Intel is ranked 7th among the semiconductor companies in this innovation ranking, but is continue to report better revenue growth compared to many of the semiconductor companies which are ranked above Intel in Thomson Reuters innovation ranking. So there is something to analyse, hol...