TICRA

TICRA is a Copenhagen, Denmark-based electromagnetic software company founded in 1971 specializing in the development of electromagnetic radiation analysis software for satellite reflector antennas, feed systems, and complex antenna structures — best known for creating GRASP (General Reflector Antenna Software Package) in 1976, the world's first commercially available reflector antenna analysis code, which remains the global reference standard for satellite reflector antenna design and verification five decades after its introduction.

GRASP computes the far-field radiation pattern, gain, sidelobe levels, polarization characteristics, cross-polarization isolation, and near-field properties of reflector antenna systems using rigorous electromagnetic methods: physical optics (PO), physical theory of diffraction (PTD), method of moments (MoM), and geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD).

These methods allow engineers to accurately predict antenna performance — the shape of the beam on Earth, the gain at band edge where GEO satellite beams must maintain signal strength, and the suppression of sidelobe radiation that could cause interference to adjacent satellite systems — during the design phase, long before antenna hardware is fabricated and measured in an anechoic chamber.

Satellite antenna designers at every major GEO satellite manufacturer (Airbus DS, Thales Alenia Space, Boeing Satellite Systems, MDA, SSL) and their customers (Intelsat, SES, Inmarsat, ViaSat) use GRASP as the authoritative tool for predicting how shaped reflectors, multiple feed arrays, and multibeam antenna systems will perform. Regulatory submissions to ITU and national telecom regulators for satellite interference coordination (required before any satellite can be licensed) use GRASP-computed antenna patterns as the reference data.

The software's 50-year legacy means that virtually all reflector antenna performance standards and measurement verification procedures worldwide were developed with GRASP as the computational benchmark.

Beyond GRASP, TICRA develops CHAMP (Complex Hardware Antenna Modelling Program) for terrestrial wireless antenna systems, POS/POS-Taper for feed horn design, and various specialized electromagnetic analysis tools for ESA and satellite industry customers. The company's small team (approximately 30 engineers and software developers) produces software that underpins billions of dollars in annual satellite hardware procurement decisions. TICRA is headquartered near the ESA ESTEC technology center in spirit (Denmark is an ESA member state) and maintains close relationships with European satellite research institutions.