Thin film coated microwell arrays and methods of using same

1. An array comprising: a fiber optic faceplate substrate that comprises a planar top surface comprising a plurality of etched reaction chambers and a polished optically conductive planar bottom surface; wherein, each reaction chamber comprises an interior bottom surface and an interior sidewall surface; further wherein the top surface of the array and the interior sidewall surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers is coated with a non-transparent thin film coating and the interior bottom surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers does not have a non-transparent coating, wherein the non-transparent coating is opaque; and

at least one of the interior bottom surface or interior sidewall surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers or top surface is coated with a transparent thin film coating, which differs from the non-transparent coating and wherein the non-transparent coating is positioned underneath the transparent coating, and wherein the transparent coating is optically transparent, 0.1-5.0 microns thick, and is impermeable to water.

2. The array of claim 1 , wherein the transparent coating is silicon dioxide.

3. The array of claim 1 , wherein, the thickness of the transparent coating is about 200-400 nm on the top surface, 50-100 nm on the sidewall, and 100-300 nm on the bottom.

4. The array of claim 1 , wherein, the thickness of the non-transparent coating is about 200-300 nm on the top surface, 60-120 nm on the sidewall, and no less than 50 nm on the corner area.

5. The array of claim 1 , wherein the non-transparent coating is selected from an organic compound, an inorganic compound, and a non-metal oxide.

6. The array of claim 5 , wherein the inorganic compound is a metal.

7. The array of claim 6 , wherein the metal is selected from chromium, gold, silver, titanium, platinum and aluminum.

8. The array of claim 1 , wherein the interior sidewall surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers is coated with the transparent coating.

9. The array of claim 1 , wherein the top surface is coated with the transparent coating.

10. The array of claim 1 , wherein the interior bottom surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers is coated with the transparent coating.

11. The array of claim 1 , wherein each one of the interior sidewall surface and the interior bottom surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers and top surface is coated with the transparent coating.

12. The array of claim 1 , wherein the interior bottom surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers are partially coated with the non-transparent coating, such that the non-transparent coating covers a corner area formed at the junction between the interior bottom surface and the interior sidewall surface of the reaction chamber and is absent from the center of the interior bottom surface of the reaction chamber which forms an aperture near the center of the interior bottom surface.

13. The array of claim 12 , wherein the diameter of the aperture is 28 microns and a ring formed around the aperture by the non-transparent coating has a width of 8.5 microns.

14. The array of claim 1 , wherein the top surface and the interior bottom surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers are coated with the transparent coating.

15. The array of claim 1 , wherein the interior bottom surface of substantially all of the reaction chambers is coated with the transparent coating, and the top surface is not coated.

16. The array of claim 1 , wherein the transparent coating comprises at least a first and second transparent coating.

17. The array of claim 1 , wherein the non-transparent coating comprises at least a first and second non-transparent coating.

18. The array of claim 1 , wherein an enzyme is immobilized on the transparent coating.

19. The array of claim 1 , wherein the number of reaction chambers is greater than 10,000.

20. The array of claim 11 , wherein the metal is titanium.