The Influence of the Skin Phenomenon on the Impedance of Thin Conductive Layers

Abstract

This paper analyzes the influence of the skin effect and the proximity effect on the inductance and impedance of thin conductive layers. The motivation for taking up this topic is the initial assessment of the possibility of using conductive layers deposited with the PVD technique on textile materials as strip or planar transmission lines of high-frequency signals (e.g., for transmitting images). This work pursues two goals. The first of them is to develop and test a numerical procedure for calculating the electromagnetic field distribution in this type of issue, based on the fundamental solution method (FSM). The second aim is to examine the impact of the skin phenomenon on the resistance, inductance and impedance of thin conductive paths. The correctness and effectiveness of FSM for the analysis of harmonics of electromagnetic fields in systems containing thin conductive layers were confirmed. Based on the performed simulations, it was found that in the frequency range above 10 MHz, the dependence of resistance and impedance on frequency is a power function with an exponent independent of the path width. Moreover, it was found that for paths with a width at least several times greater than their thickness, the dependence of the phase shift between current and voltage on frequency practically does not depend on the path width.