Abstract. In order to improve the ultrasonic wave amplitude excited by electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs), many researchers have proposed models. But they always ignored displacement current or the effect of the permittivity of the air or the metal sample during modeling, due to its low permittivity. However, more durable dielectric materials are replacing or coating with metals in many applications which have a much higher permittivity than air or metal sample so that the effect of permittivity cannot be ignored. Based on an analytical model, the effect of the permittivity of coating layer on the eddy current generated in an aluminum sample by EMAT has been studied. The analytical analysis indicates that the eddy current density excited by the spiral coil of EMAT slowly increases in the beginning and then decreases rapidly while the permittivity increases, and it has much relation to the thickness of the coating layer and the exciting frequency, which is verified by the simulation result.