Attenuation Constant and Skin Depth

As the electromagnetic energy penetrates into the interior of the material it attenuates to an extent depending upon the effective loss factor The Inverse of the attenuation constant is defined as the skin depth, 5  

Such approximation applies to very wet ceramics (e = 0) where a = i e e and the dominant loss mechanism is dielectric conductivity. Therefore substitution and inversion leads to the skin penetration depth  

For a low loss ceramic, the usual appraximation is now 1, which lecKis to the equivalent depth for a low loss dielectric  

For a lossy cer un1c where both dipolar and conductivity losses are present, no such approximation Is applicable and the full expression Involving the attenuation constant a must be used. 

---