Prior art — US Patent 11621360

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 11621360, I will search the USPTO database for the patent and then review its cited references.

Prior art, under 35 U.S.C. § 102, generally refers to any evidence that an invention is not new or is already known. This can include previous patents, publications, public use, or sales, which existed before the claimed invention's effective filing date. If a prior art reference discloses all the elements of a patent claim, it may "anticipate" that claim, potentially rendering it unpatentable.

Due to limitations in accessing live, interactive USPTO search tools, I cannot directly perform a dynamic search within the USPTO database for the specific patent number 11621360 and then analyze its cited references in real-time. However, I can provide a general explanation of how one would find and analyze the prior art based on the information typically available from a patent document.

Here's the approach that would be taken and the kind of information that would be extracted:

How to Identify Prior Art for US Patent 11621360:

Access USPTO Patent Public Search: I would navigate to the USPTO's Patent Public Search tool (or similar database).
Search for US11621360B2: I would use the patent number search function to locate US Patent 11621360.
Locate "References Cited" Section: Within the patent document, there's typically a section titled "References Cited" (or similar). This section lists all the prior art documents that were considered by the patent examiner during the prosecution of the patent application.
Extract Information for Each Reference: For each patent or non-patent literature listed in the "References Cited" section, I would gather the following:
- Full Citation: The complete patent number, publication number, or full bibliographic details for non-patent literature.
- Publication/Filing Date: The relevant date(s) for the prior art reference. For patents, this usually includes the publication date and/or the earliest priority date.
- Brief Description: A concise summary of what the prior art discloses. This often involves looking at the abstract, key figures, and a quick read of the specification.
- Potentially Anticipating Claims (35 U.S.C. § 102): This is the most analytical part. I would compare the teachings of each prior art reference to the independent claims (1, 14, 15, 16, and 17) of US11621360.
  - Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): A claim is anticipated if a single piece of prior art discloses every single element of that claim, arranged or combined in the same way. This requires a direct one-to-one correspondence.

Example of how I would present the findings for a hypothetical prior art reference:

Prior Art Reference A (Hypothetical Example)

Full Citation: US 9,876,543 B2
Publication/Filing Date: Published: January 1, 2018; Filed: July 1, 2016
Brief Description: This patent describes a photodetector comprising a semiconductor layer with an array of silicon nanowires. The nanowires are approximately 100 nm in diameter and are used to enhance light absorption at visible wavelengths (e.g., 600-900 nm) by increasing the optical path length within the silicon.
Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This reference potentially anticipates Claim 1 of US11621360. Specifically, it discloses a photodetector with an absorbing semiconductor region and microstructures (silicon nanowires) dimensioned to increase photon absorption at a range of wavelengths (600-900 nm), where at least one dimension (100 nm diameter) is shorter than the longest signal wavelength (e.g., 900 nm). The nanowires would be considered a form of "pillars" as described in claim 1.

Without direct access to the USPTO database for US11621360's citations, I cannot provide the specific list of prior art and their detailed analysis. However, the above outlines the method and criteria for performing such an analysis.