Aqueous curable imprintable medium and patterned layer forming method

A method of a forming a patterned layer on a substrate, the method comprising:

• depositing a layer of an aqueous curable imprintable medium on the substrate, the aqueous curable imprintable medium comprising:
• at least one first curable compound according to Formula 1:
• wherein R1-R3 are hydrolysable alkoxy groups, and wherein R4 is selected from the group consisting of a C1-C6 linear alkyl group and a phenyl group, at least one second curable compound comprising a silicon atom chemically bound to four hydrolysable alkoxy groups, and
• a photo-acid generator or a photo-base generator;
• imprinting a patterned stamp into the curable imprintable medium layer;
• initiating curing the curable imprintable medium by exposing the curable imprintable medium layer to a predefined part of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum;
• removing the stamp upon completion of said curing;
• filling the regions in between the patterned layer with a filler material;
• forming a further patterned layer on top of the filled patterned layer by repeating the depositing, imprinting, initiating and removing;
• and
• removing the filler material after forming the further patterned layer.