Interest in understanding the biological information content of carbohydrates has led to the development of a variety of methodologies for preparing carbohydrate microarrays. A key challenge is to find a general method to make carbohydrate molecules adhere to a solid chip in a stable manner while preserving the biorecognition properties present when in their native biological environment. The complexity of carbohydrates makes chemical modification prior to surface deposition rigorous when large libraries of surface-immobilized sugars are desired. In this report, we review a versatile photochemical method to carbohydrate immobilization that does not require premodification of the carbohydrate. The method utilizes surfaces modified with photoactive carbonyls that can insert into C-H bonds upon photoexcitation.