About EESC-USP Mileage

The EESC-USP Mileage group is an engineering team from the University of São Paulo (USP), in São Carlos, comprised of students dedicated to designing, building, and testing ultra-efficiency electric prototypes. Our goal is to compete in the Shell Eco-Marathon, and we currently hold the national record of 533 km/kWh, making us Brazil's most efficient electric car.

Our New Project: "Angra"

"Angra" is our next-generation vehicle, designed with one objective: to break our own record. In a competition decided by milliwatts, we have learned that using generic electronic modules is a bottleneck. They add weight, have high quiescent current, and are susceptible to failures from vibration and electromagnetic interference (EMI).

For "Angra," we are developing a 100% custom, vertically-integrated, and robust electronic architecture, composed of four main systems that must operate in perfect symbiosis. It is for the manufacturing of this complex system that we seek a partnership with PCBWay, as PCB fabrication is a process that will depend on a company.

Detailed Technical Architecture of "Angra"

Our new architecture is modular and designed for performance, divided into four critical boards:

1. Converter Board (DC/DC Power Supply)

This board is the vehicle's PDB (Power Distribution Board). Its function is to receive the battery voltage (approx. 36V) and efficiently convert it into the multiple operating voltages that power the other systems (15V, 5V, and 3.3V). The design uses multiple buck converters, such as the MP4575 IC. The critical challenge is to guarantee very low output ripple and to control the current, avoiding overcurrent or overheating due to poorly sized inductors and capacitors. A high-quality PCB is essential for the thermal design of these converters and will be bench-validated with an oscilloscope under a variable load.

2. Motor Control Board (Microcontroller)

This is the prototype's logical brain. The board houses the microcontroller that manages the pilot's inputs (accelerator/TPS) and the motor's Hall sensors. It is this board that implements our "coast-down" (accelerate-disengage) driving strategy. The project involves selecting commutation methods (Trapezoidal or Sinusoidal), control strategies (like PID, PI, Anti-windup), and implementing soft-start and regenerative braking. It also integrates current sense amplifiers to read current data, which is essential for torque control.

3. Inverter Board (Power Electronics)

This is our high-current power board, responsible for executing the motor phase commutation. It operates at voltages above 36V and is robustly designed for 10A continuous and 20A peak currents. The design is based on three half-bridge gate drivers (like the IRSM005) and, most importantly, implements dedicated logic protection against shoot-through via AND/OR gates, one of the project's biggest risks. For fine current control, the board has its own low-impedance shunt resistor (1 milli-ohm) and a dedicated operational amplifier.

4. Telemetry Board (Data Acquisition)

This is the nervous system of "Angra." The board manages all sensor inputs not directly linked to the main control: battery voltage and current monitoring, temperatures, and GPS data. It processes and sends this data packet in real-time to the pits via an RF transceiver (e.g., LoRa), allowing for strategic decisions during the race.

Why Partner with PCBWay?

"Angra" is a leap in engineering complexity. To validate these complex designs, we need a partner capable of providing rapid prototyping and industrial-grade PCBs.

As stated in our internal project documentation (G1 Inverter Board), we are actively seeking a partnership with PCBWay. Your manufacturing capabilities, specifically the ability to produce boards with thicker copper, is seen by our team as a key technical advantage. This is crucial for the robustness and thermal dissipation of high-current boards, like our Inverter, ensuring the car has the reliability needed to break records.

• eficiency
• Electric Vehicles
• USP
• Mileage
• EESC
• Shell Eco-marathon