Extension of the boundary element method to systems with conductors and piece-wise constant dielectrics

Accurate modeling of electric fields is necessary to study the dynamics of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Typical microelectromechanical systems use high dielectric-constant materials, however, which significantly affect the electric field. Many numerical packages use the finite element method (FEM) to deal with systems with dielectrics. The FEM is not, however, very efficient in modeling microelectromechanical systems. There exist numerical packages that use the boundary element method (BEM), which is more desirable due to its low computational cost. But the BEM as it exists cannot model the effects of the dielectrics. This paper extends the BEM to systems with piece-wise constant dielectrics as well as conductors.