Skin Effect in Conductors
Track attenuation and phase as alternating current penetrates a conductor.
Free theory articleTrack attenuation and phase as alternating current penetrates a conductor.
Concept & interpretation
When an alternating current (AC) flows through a conductor, it is not distributed uniformly throughout the cross-section. Instead, the current density is highest near the surface and decreases exponentially with depth. This phenomenon is known as the skin effect, and it plays a critical role in the design of high-frequency circuits and power transmission lines.
Interactive Attenuation Profile
Open the Skin Effect in Conductors module to observe how the current profile decays into the material.
- Select the "Copper" Conductor and set Frequency Hz to 1000000. Set Depth mm to 0.1.
- Observe the Skin depth micrometers is ~66.08, and the Amplitude ratio matches our calculated ~0.2202.
- Change the Conductor to "Aluminum" and note how the lower conductivity increases the skin depth to ~85.07 μm, resulting in less attenuation (ratio ~0.3087) at the same 0.1 mm depth.
- Set Frequency Hz to 0 to observe the "Fixed-depth DC limit". Without oscillation, the current penetrates fully without exponential decay or phase lag.