Mycelium-based substrate for sustainable flexible PCBs

Información del proyecto

MycoSub

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: 101157752

DOI

10.3030/101157752

Proyecto cerrado

Fecha de la firma de la CE 24 Enero 2024

Fecha de inicio 1 Febrero 2024

Fecha de finalización 31 Julio 2025

Financiado con arreglo a

• European Research Council (ERC)

Coste total

Sin datos

Aportación de la UE

€ 150 000,00

Coordinado por

UNIVERSITAT LINZ
Austria

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

Período documentado: 2024-02-01 hasta 2025-07-31

Resumen del contexto y de los objetivos generales del proyecto

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.

Trabajo realizado desde el comienzo del proyecto hasta el final del período abarcado por el informe y los principales resultados hasta la fecha

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.

Avances que van más allá del estado de la técnica e impacto potencial esperado (incluida la repercusión socioeconómica y las implicaciones sociales más amplias del proyecto hasta la fecha)

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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