Patent ID: 7491680

Claim:
A method for synthesizing one or more selected multimers at specific reaction sites on a substrate, the specific reaction sites containing one or more protected initiation moieties, the method comprising: (a) contacting the substrate with a liquid solution comprising one or more photo-reagent precursors, said precursors selected from the group consisting of acid precursors and base precursors, such that the liquid solution is in contact with the initiation moieties; (b) fluidly isolating the specific reaction sites; (c) irradiating a selected number of the isolated reaction sites, without use of a photolithographic mask, with an optical system comprising a light source and a computer-controlled spatial optical modulator comprising a digital micromirror device to produce at least one photo-generated reagent that directly deprotects the initiation moieties at the irradiated reaction sites so as to create deprotected initiation moieties; (d) contacting the substrate with one or more monomers, the monomers comprising an unprotected reactive site and a protected reactive site, under conditions such that the unprotected reactive site of the monomers couple with the deprotected initiation moieties so as to create new initiation moieties with attached monomers; and (e) repeating steps (a)-(d) until the selected multimers are synthesized.