These findings confirm that copoly azide 4% coating effectively mitigates nonspecific protein interactions with SiGNPs even after prolonged incubation times with high protein concentrations. Secondly, AuNPs with adsorbed streptavidin exhibit a higher degree of adherence to regions of the microarray where they are not intended to bind, thereby augmenting the background signal of the assay (see Figure ). This demonstrates how the functionalization outlined in this study can enhance the performance of biological assays by a combination of signal enhancement and noise reduction.