Patent ID: 7951601

Claim:
A method of performing confocal laser microscopy on a polymer array disposed on a silicon wafer substrate, the method comprising the steps of: providing a silicon wafer substrate having a top side and a bottom side; coating the top side of the substrate with a transparent oxide layer to provide an oxide coated wafer; depositing a reactive functional group comprising a labile protecting group substantially uniformly across the transparent oxide layer, wherein the labile protecting group is NNPOC or MBPMOC; selectively removing one or more of the labile protecting groups from predefined regions of the wafer to provide exposed functional groups in the predefined regions; reacting the exposed functional groups with a nucleic acid comprising a reactive functional group and a labile protecting group; repeating the steps of selectively removing and reacting to produce the polymer array; hybridizing the polymer array with a plurality of ligands; and assaying for one or more hybridized ligands using confocal laser fluorescence microscopy to detect hybridization.