Nagoya University Formula Team FEM

Nagoya University Formula Team FEM was founded back in 2003, and since has been participating in the Formula SAE - Japanese Regional Tournament. With 20 years of accumulated knowledge and experience, 6 of which are in the EV class, the team has been a key contender for the championship. The team has scored its first championship back in 2014, with its 11th car- an internal combustion vehicle. Two years later in 2016, the team switched to an electric vehicle (EV) powertrain as one of the pioneering teams in Japan—a testament to the team’s heart of innovation. The team has been driving the future of Japanese FSAE, achieving 6 total EV-class championships out of its 8 vehicles. The team is currently the only one within the Japanese tournament to utilize a powertrain of 4 in-wheel motors accompanied by a carbon monocoque, one of the latest technologies developed in motorsport.

The previous car, FEM-21, has demonstrated its technological prowess by achieving an overall 2nd position in the tournament, the highest position ever achieved by an EV team. 

Team Vision: Pursuing World-Class Performance

Following years of success as an EV in the Japanese tournament, Formula Team FEM has set its sights on the world-stage. The team is currently pushing towards a future where it can stand alongside the world’s greatest teams in other regions. In order to achieve this, the team needs partners and sponsors which can provide support for precise, high-quality manufacturing. As an EV team, a lot of electrical components such as printed circuit boards (PCBs) have to be designed and manufactured within a development period of half a year. Hence, we believe that PCBWay would be a perfect partner for our team, which will allow us to have the best quality components as we make our way to the top.

Electrical Systems

The team uses a lot of components for its electrical systems, all functioning differently—powering the tractive systems, managing the battery, distributing and collecting data from our sensors, among many others. Here are some of the boards that the team designed for the previous vehicles:

Shutdown circuit - Responsible for latching on to electrical system faults such as BMS (battery management system), IMD (insulation monitoring device), and BSPD (brake system plausibility device) as part of the electrical safety system.

DC-DC Converter - Allows the team to power its devices properly by converting high voltage from the secondary battery into appropriate voltage supply for other components such as sensors.

Steering Control Board - Displays the vehicle status to the driver, and allows convenient parameter tuning of the control system.

Other boards such as the Main ECU (electronic control unit) are currently under development. Regardless, given this challenge of designing and building PCBs within a packed one-year development timeline, the team believes that partnering with PCBWay would significantly help with achieving its goals—to be on par with the world’s leading EV teams. This would not be possible without the invaluable support of sponsors. We kindly request your consideration and look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with PCBWay.