ELECTRICAL SKIN DEPTH and

EDDY CURRENTS in RFID SYSTEMS

William N. Reining, PE
Madison Wisconsin USA

The electrical skin effect describes the effects of current crowding near the surface of any
conductor. This effect is important where we are trying to measure the conductance of
the material by reflected magnetic flux due to eddy current generation or where we are
trying to send an electromagnetic field through a conducting medium. When I refer to a
conducting medium I am not referring to highly conductive metals but to any conductive
material. The table below shows the resistivity of many materials.

MATERIAL RESISTIVITY (ohm-cm)

Copper 1.673E-6
Aluminum 2.655E-6
Carbon 3.500E-3
Plasma (human) 60
Blood 150
Milk 200
Sea Water 200 - 333
Muscle, Cardiac 300
Muscle, Cardiac 300
Bone 2000
Wet Earth 10,000 – 1,000,000
Distilled Water 18.2E6

If the skin depth of a particular material at single frequency is small compared to the
thickness of the material, the material is said to be reflective. Conversely, if the skin
depth is large compared to the thickness of the material, the material is said to be
transparent. If the skin depth is near the thickness of the material, the material is said to
be adsorptive.

The formula for skin depth (ohms-meter) is:

SD = c / (2*pi* omega*rho*µ)1/2 [1]

Where c is the speed of light in the medium, rho is the volume conductivity , and omega
is the angular frequency .

Page 1 of 3
Revision Date 5/272005
 ELECTRICAL SKIN DEPTH and
EDDY CURRENTS in RFID SYSTEMS
William N. Reining, PE
Madison Wisconsin USA

If we collect the constants, convert angular frequency to frequency, convert resistivity to

conductance and adjust for conductance in centimeters:

d = 5033 (r/(µ*f))1/2 (cm) [2]

Where the answer is in centimeters and r is the resistivity (1/rho), f is the frequency
(2*pi*omega) and µ is the magnetic permeability.

Sometimes the conductivity is specified (Siemens-cm). Conductance is measured in

Siemens (S) or mhos such that conductivity = 1/resitivity. 1 micro-Siemens is 1,000,000
ohms.

When calculating the electrical skin depth make sure you have the resistivity specified in
the proper units. The above formula expects the resistivity in ohm-cm. Some
measurement systems specify resistivity in ohm-M (meter). Lets take a material with the
resistivity of 1ohm-M. A cube of the material one-meter on a side will have a resistance
of 1 ohm from any two parallel sides.

R = 1ohm-M * L(M)/A(M2) = 1 ohm [3]

To see how this relates to the resistivity in ohm-cm simply reduce the area to 1cm2
(area is 1/10,000 smaller or resistance increases by 10,000) and then reduce the length to
1cm (length is 100 times smaller is resistance is reduced by 100). The net result is that ?
for the same material is 100 times bigger when specified in ohm-cm. That one-meter
cube of material with a resistance of 1 ohm will have a resistance of 100 ohms when have
a cubic-cm sample.

In RFID these effects can be profound since 63.2% of the incoming excitation field is lost
entering the material (at a skin depth) and 63.2% of the remaining 36.8% or 76.7% of the
original signal is lost exiting the material.

In non-contact conductance sensing, the loss of most of the signal in the material of
interest is an ideal situation.

As an extreme example, the skin depth of copper at 1MHz is 66 microns, so for all
practical purposes, operation of a RFID inside a copper shield or even near its outside
surface is impracticable.

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Revision Date 5/272005
 ELECTRICAL SKIN DEPTH and
EDDY CURRENTS in RFID SYSTEMS
William N. Reining, PE
Madison Wisconsin USA

Another way to look at this effect is to assess the eddy currents that are produced in a
conductor since these currents generate a return magnetic field this opposite to the
incoming field. If the conductor approaches that of a perfect conductor r=0), then all the
incoming energy is reflected back from the surface. This implies that at the surface of the
perfect conductor, the electric and magnetic fields must be zero.

These effects must be considered in the design of any RFID system.

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Revision Date 5/272005