An idealized electrostatically actuated microelectromechanical system (MEMS) involving an elastic plate with a heterogeneous dielectric material is considered. Starting from the electrostatic and mechanical energies, the governing evolution equations for the electrostatic potential and the plate deflection are derived from the corresponding energy balance. This leads to a free boundary transmission problem due to a jump of the dielectric permittivity across the interface separating elastic plate and free space. Reduced models retaining the influence of the heterogeneity of the elastic plate under suitable assumptions are obtained when either the elastics plate thickness or the aspect ratio of the device vanishes.
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