Numerical analysis on effective electric field penetration depth for interdigital impedance sensor

Interdigital (finger-like) electrodes are widely used for electrical impedance and capacitance tomography of composite dielectric materials and complex insulating structures. Because of their advantages, they are now effectively introduced as capacitance sensors into a variety of industrial branches, agriculture, medical science, biological engineering, military branches, etc. In order to effectively apply the so-called interdigital impedance sensors in practice, of great importance is to optimize the sensor design parameters such as the electric field penetration depth, signal strength and so on. The general design principles of the interdigital capacitance sensor have been discussed for a long time by many researchers. However, there is no consensus on the definition of the effective electric field penetration depth of interdigital electrode. This paper discusses how to determine the effective electric field penetration depth of interdigital sensor on the basis of the refractive principle of electric field intensity and the FEM analyses of electric field distribution and capacitance for the sensor model.