Microarrays

1 . A method of preparing a microarray comprising steps of:

a) providing a micro-LED array light source comprising an integrated substrate, wherein the substrate comprises an array of reaction sites, wherein each reaction site comprises an anchored functional group and is associated with a micro-LED of the array;

b) providing a reaction chamber in fluid communication with the array of reaction sites;

c) synthesizing a plurality of polymers on the reaction sites by iterative cycles of:

i) introducing a light quencher molecule to the reaction chamber;

ii) activating the micro-LED associated with one or more of the reaction sites to deprotect the anchored functional group;

iii) introducing a subunit comprising a non-anchored functional group protected by a photolabile group to the reaction chamber such that the deprotected anchored functional group binds the subunit and anchors it to the polymer; and

iv) removing unbound subunits.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a functional layer to provide the anchored functional group of step a).

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a linker is bound to the substrate to provide the anchored functional group of step a).

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a subunit comprising an acid labile group is bound to the substrate and an acid is introduced to the reaction chamber to provide the anchored functional group of step a).

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the subunits comprise nucleic acids, nucleotides, oligonucleotides, polynucleotides, amino acids, oligopeptides, nucleomimetics, ribonucleotides, deoxyribonucleotides, peptide nucleic acids, peptides, peptidomimetics, glycopeptides, heteroglycans, proteins, or combinations thereof.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the photolabile group is NPPOC, NBOC, NPEOC, MeNPPOC, MeNPOC, benzoyl-NPPOC, DMBOC, NPES, NPPS or derivatives of the foregoing.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction chamber comprises a flow cell apparatus.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the number of iterative cycles is at least 10, at least 25, at least 50, at least 100, or at least 500.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises a step of evaluating the micro-LED array light source by activating all pixels of the array and visualizing the array to determine coordinates of functional pixels.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the method comprises proceeding with step c) using only reaction sites associated with functional pixels of the micro-LED array light source.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method results in an error rate in the polymers that is reduced relative to a method wherein a light quencher molecule is not introduced to the reaction chamber.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the number of sequence errors is less than 10% of the number of errors that occur in a method wherein a light quencher molecule is not introduced to the reaction chamber.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the number of sequence errors is less than 1% of the number of errors that occur in a method wherein a light quencher molecule is not introduced to the reaction chamber.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the light-quenching molecules are aromatic hydrocarbons.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the light-quenching molecules inhibit the transmission of light be absorbing light of a designated wavelength.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the light-quenching molecules absorb light at a wavelength between approximately 300 to 400 nm.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the light-quenching molecules absorb light at a wavelength that is approximately 365 nm.