Example Applications Contactless Smart Cards The first plastic cards appeared in the USA as early as the beginning of the 1950s, when cheap PVC replaced cardboard. In the years that followed, plastic credit cards became widespread. Incidentally, the first credit card was issued by Diners Club in 1950. The rapid development of semiconductor technology made it possible to integrate data memory and protective logic onto a single silicon chip in the 1970s. | RFID Handbook Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards and Identification Second Edition Klaus Finkenzeller 13 Copyright 2003 John Wiley Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-470-84402-7 Example Applications Contactless Smart Cards The first plastic cards appeared in the USA as early as the beginning of the 1950s when cheap PVC replaced cardboard. In the years that followed plastic credit cards became widespread. Incidentally the first credit card was issued by Diners Club in 1950. The rapid development of semiconductor technology made it possible to integrate data memory and protective logic onto a single silicon chip in the 1970s. The idea of incorporating such an integrated memory chip into an identification card was patented in 1968 by Jurgen Dethloff and Helmut Grotrupp in Germany. However it was not until almost 15 years later that the great breakthrough was achieved with the introduction of the telephone smart card by the French company PTT. Several million telephone smart cards were in circulation in France by 1986 Rankl and Effing 1996 . These first generation smart cards were memory cards with contacts. A significant improvement was achieved when entire microprocessors were successfully integrated into a silicon chip and these chips incorporated into an identification card. This made it possible to run software in a smart card thus opening up the possibility of realising high-security applications. Thus smart cards for mobile telephones and the new bank cards EC with chip were realised exclusively using microprocessor cards. Since the mid-1980s repeated attempts have been made to launch contactless smart cards onto the market. The operating frequency of 135 kHz that was normal at the time and the high power consumption of the silicon chips on the market necessitated transponder coils with several hundred windings. The resulting large coil cross-section and the additional capacitors that were often required impeded manufacture in the form of ID-1 format .
