Analyzing technological knowledge diffusion among technological fields using patent data: The example of microfluidics

Study of technological knowledge diffusion can provide a basis for R&D planners to invest new R&D projects with a proper direction. In this paper, we introduce a modified method to analyze the diffusion degree of technological knowledge among different technological fields using patent data at the technology patent class level. This method first generates a patent citation network related to a specific research area and then establishes a technological field diffusion matrix according to the concordance between the patent document and the corresponding patent class. After that indicators are set up to measure the diffusion degree of technological field from two aspects of diffusion depth and breadth and then we discern the diffusion types of typical fields. Finally, we conduct microfluidic technology as a case study to prove the feasibility of the method.