CHEMICAL ARRAY FABRICATION ERRORS

A method of fabricating an addressable array of chemical probes at respective feature locations on a substrate surface. The method may use a deposition apparatus with a substrate unit which includes the substrate and with a drop deposition unit which includes a drop deposition head. Such an apparatus when operated according to a target drive pattern based on nominal operating parameters of the apparatus provides the probes on the substrate surface in the target array pattern. The method may include depositing at least one drop from the head unit onto the substrate surface. A fiducial on the substrate unit is optionally viewed from a sensor. A deposited drop on the substrate surface is viewed from a sensor. An actual position of the viewed deposited drop may be determined relative to a fiducial on the substrate unit, based on the views of the fiducial and deposited drop. An error is determined based on any difference between the actual and target positions. Alternatively, an error for one or more deposition units may be determined based on a statistical difference between the actual and target positions of a set of multiple drops deposited from each deposition unit. The deposition apparatus is operated to deposit further drops from the head unit onto the substrate surface at feature locations while moving at least one of the substrate unit or head unit with respect to the other, so as to fabricate the array. Apparatus and computer program products are also provided.