February 3, 1950 – June 2, 2026
You have left us —
but never our hearts.
but never our hearts.
Du bist von uns gegangen –
aber niemals aus unseren Herzen.
aber niemals aus unseren Herzen.
In Liebe und Dankbarkeit nehmen wir Abschied.
Seine Ehefrau Dorle, seine Kinder Harry, Frederik und Gregor. Sowie Enkelkinder, Familie und Freunde
Professional Biography:
Michael Hegenbarth, Project Director Standardization at Infineon Technologies AG, is one of the original developers of communication security techniques for chip cards used in digital signature applications. Chairman and delegate since 1986 in various international card standardization groups in ISO/IEC, CEN, and ETSI. In 1988, he pushed the SIM card standard together with France Telecom. Chairman of Germany’s standardization committee for cards and personal identification since 1993, and vice chairman since 2014.
He has chaired the ISO/IEC JTC1 working group SC17/WG8 for contactless interfaces since 1990 and initiated the ISO/IEC 14443 standard in 1991, which is billionwise used in credit and payment cards, additionally in identification cards and ePassports.
In 1997, he proposed combining mobile phones with contactless interfaces, a concept advanced under the term NFC since 2002. Meanwhile, millions of mobile phones are equipped with NFC, thereby providing considerable convenience in daily life applications, e.g., for payments.
He has chaired the ISO/IEC JTC1 working group SC17/WG8 for contactless interfaces since 1990 and initiated the ISO/IEC 14443 standard in 1991, which is billionwise used in credit and payment cards, additionally in identification cards and ePassports.
In 1997, he proposed combining mobile phones with contactless interfaces, a concept advanced under the term NFC since 2002. Meanwhile, millions of mobile phones are equipped with NFC, thereby providing considerable convenience in daily life applications, e.g., for payments.
His former roles in organizations and companies:
Vice Chairman of German Card Standardization DIN NIA-17 "Karten und Persönliche Identifikation"
Vice Head of German Delegation in ISO/IEC JTC1/SC17 "Cards and Personal Identification"
Convener ISO/IEC JTC1/SC17/WG8 "Contactless integrated Circuit(s) Cards"
Member of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC17/WG3 "Machine Readable Travel Documents"
His son Harry can be reached via email: Harry@Hegenb****.com