Mycelium-based substrate for sustainable flexible PCBs

Project Information

MycoSub

Grant agreement ID: 101157752

DOI

10.3030/101157752

Project closed

EC signature date 24 January 2024

Start date 1 February 2024

End date 31 July 2025

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 150 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT LINZ
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MycoSub (Mycelium-based substrate for sustainable flexible PCBs)

Reporting period: 2024-02-01 to 2025-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The overall objective of the MycoSub project was to advance the development of mycelium-based substrates from TRL 4 to TRL 7 in direct cooperation with leading industrial partners. This effort addressed all aspects relevant for industrial implementation: (i) developing approaches to render substrate production scalable, (ii) characterizing the material according to industry standards in order to facilitate the acquisition of relevant certificates, (iii) establishing scalable industrial processes for converting the substrates into circuit boards analogous to conventional non-degradable flexible PCBs, (iv) developing more sustainable additive manufacturing techniques such as screen printing or direct ink writing (DIW), and (v) assembling fully populated demonstrator boards using each of the proposed technological routes.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In this project we developed efficient and scalable methods for fabricating mycelium substrates for flexible PCBs, with improvements in both the growth phase and post-processing. We also investigated functionalization procedures, including those commonly used in industrial processing, to demonstrate the potential of mycelium materials for commercial applications.
Through advances in solid-state fermentation, we can now reliably produce homogeneous sheets of pure mycelium with minimal manual intervention. The optimized post-processing methods enhance electrical and mechanical properties such as resistivity, tensile strength, and surface quality. In addition, we successfully fabricated demonstrators, including NFC tags and sensors, which confirm the feasibility of using mycelium substrates in electronic products.
As a complementary approach, we introduced liquid-state fermentation as an alternative route for producing mycelium sheets. This method requires less growth volume and yields thinner, even more homogeneous sheets of pure mycelium material, further broadening the processing options available.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Mycelium-based materials have the potential to advance sustainable solutions across various industrial sectors, including packaging, construction, and leather substitutes. In electronics, the demand for sustainable and degradable materials is particularly high to address issues of pollution and health hazards. Within this project, we demonstrated that mycelium substrates can serve as alternatives to conventional flexible materials such as polyimide in flexible electronics.

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