This is the third special section on the reliability, packaging, testing, and characterization of MOEMS and MEMS published in the Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS and MOEMS (JM³). The purpose of this special section is to provide a technical stage to publish recent advances made in reliability, packaging, testing, and characterization of micro-optoelectromechanical systems (MOEMS) and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for various applications.

The scope of this special section includes all new and interesting aspects of reliability, packaging, testing, and characterization of MOEMS and MOEMS. Articles based on theoretical, experimental, and simulation results were considered for publication. Some of the articles in this special section are updated versions of papers presented at the conference on Reliability, Packaging, Testing, and Characterization of MEMS/MOEMS and Nanodevices X sponsored by SPIE and held in January 2011 at SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, California, as part of the MOEMS-MEMS 2011 Micro and Nanofabrication symposium and education program. The main objective of this special section was to provide a publication source for in-depth investigations and interdisciplinary discussions involving reliability, packaging, testing, and characterization of MEMS/MOEMS.

We would like to thank all the reviewers of this special section for their timely support in reviewing the articles for JM³. We thank Dr. Burn Lin, former editor-in-chief of JM³, Dr. Chris Mack, current editor-in-chief of JM³, Dr. Thomas Suleski, senior editor, and Dr. Ed Motamedi, senior editor, for providing us with the opportunity to act as the guest editors of this special section. Finally, our deep gratitude is directed to Karolyn Labes, Rebecca Saxton, Brenda McDonald, and other members of the SPIE journals staff for their kind support and assistance in organizing this special section.