Method for aligning capacitor plates in a security tag and a capacitor formed thereby

A circuit element disposed on a substrate surface to reflect electromagnetic energy for the purpose of indicating the presence of said circuit element, comprising:

• a. first and second capacitor plates disposed over said surface of said substrate in an aligned relationship with each other, said aligned relationship having manufacturing variations in the relative positioning of said first and second capacitor plates;
• b. a dielectric layer disposed between said first and second capacitor plates;
• c. at least one of said first and second capacitor plates being formed substantially smaller relative to the other of said first and second capacitor plates;
• and
• d. said at least one of said first and second capacitor plates being disposed at a predetermined offset in at least one planar direction from an edge of the other of said first and second capacitor plates, said predetermined offset being selected in accordance with said manufacturing variations to prevent variations in the value of capacitance of said capacitor due to said manufacturing variations.