Jürgen Dethloff

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Jürgen Dethloff (born May 12, 1924 in Stolzenhagen, Stettin , † December 31, 2002 in Hamburg ) was a German engineer. He is considered the inventor of the microprocessor card and was a co-developer of the chip card .

Life

Dethloff completed a distance learning course in electrical engineering towards the end of the Second World War and in 1949 passed the examination to become a master radio mechanic. In 1950 he founded the Dethloff-Elektronik company, with which he manufactured intercom and command systems for ships. Among other things, they equipped the private yacht of Aristotle Onassis . He sold the company and in 1965 built a new company called "Jürgen Dethloff Hamburg".

In 1966 he teamed up with Helmut Gröttrup . He had been dealing with the concept of the later chip card for a while and already held a patent in this area. In 1969, Dethloff registered a patent with Gröttrup in Germany for a plastic card with an integrated circuit (“identification switch ”). The design looked like a key on a card, with electronic contacts in place of key bits. Soon they switched to chip cards, which were already used by banks at the time, but only mechanically (they were placed on an "imprinter" in the shop, which printed the data - name, number - on a receipt). The patent was granted in 1982. Dethloff also advised the industry extensively and successfully on the use of chip cards.

Dethloff applied for a patent in 1977 for the microprocessor card (smart card), which protects the data better than a magnetic strip on the card.

honors and awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dethloff, Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German inventor
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 2002
Place of death Hamburg