Gap-change sensing through capacitive techniques

An apparatus, comprising:

• a reference capacitor whose capacitance changes based on an environmental condition surrounding the apparatus;
• a sensor capacitor whose capacitance changes based on a deflection of at least one plate forming the sensor capacitor and the environmental condition;
• a circuit to generate a measurement after removing an effect of the environmental condition from a capacitance of the sensor capacitor;
• and
• a housing that encompasses the reference capacitor, the sensor capacitor, and the circuit, and wherein the at least one plate experiencing the deflection is integrated in the housing, wherein the housing is formed by a plurality of metal plates that are each laser etched and bonded together to create the housing.

A method, comprising:

• automatically generating a measurement based on a change in a distance between a first conductive surface and a second conductive surface forming a variable capacitor;
• communicating the measurement to a data processing system associated with the variable capacitor;
• and
• adjusting the measurement based on at least one environmental condition by analyzing data of a reference capacitor having a shielding spacer between the reference capacitor and a bottom of a housing to minimize an effect of a stray capacitance affecting the measurement.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a reference capacitor whose capacitance changes based on an environmental condition surrounding the apparatus;
• a sensor capacitor whose capacitance changes based on a deflection of at least one plate forming the sensor capacitor and the environmental condition;
• a circuit to generate a measurement after removing an effect of the environmental condition from a capacitance of the sensor capacitor;
• and
• a shielding spacer between the reference capacitor and a bottom of the housing to minimize an effect of a stray capacitance affecting the measurement, wherein a height of the shielding spacer is at least ten times larger than a plate spacer between plates of the reference capacitor and between plates of the sensor capacitor.