Patent ID: 7141985

Claim:
An electronics package for use with a proximity probe, comprising: a) a linear motor for establishing and measuring a plurality of gaps between the proximity probe and a target, said plurality of gaps ranging between and including there being no gap between the probe and the target and there being a maximum gap between the probe and the target; b) amplifier circuitry which is operatively connected to the output of the proximity probe for producing an output voltage which is: (i) equal to zero volts when there is no gap between the proximity probe and the target; (ii) equal to a predetermined voltage when there is a maximum gap between the proximity probe and the target; and (iii) between zero volts and said predetermined voltage for the remainder of the plurality of gaps; c) an analog-to-digital converter having an input and a plurality of outputs, the input to said analog-to-digital converter being connected to the output of the amplifier circuitry and the outputs comprising a plurality of digital signals representing the digitized output voltage of the amplifier circuitry; d) a microprocessor which receives the plurality of digital signals from the output of analog-to-digital converter and which calculates a coefficient to linearize the output voltage of the amplifier circuitry for each of said plurality of gaps; and e) a memory device for storing the coefficient for each of said gaps at an address in the memory corresponding to the voltage at the output of the amplifier for that gap.