An indium cap layer is formed by blanket depositing indium onto a surface of metallic interconnects separated by interlayer dielectric, and then selectively chemically etching the indium located on the interlayer dielectric leaving an indium cap layer. Further, using the same techniques at multiple locations around permits a high dynamic range for measurements of the degrees of freedom of an object. The method further comprises providing a shim of thickness sufficient to fill a gap between the heat source and multi-axis rotary spherical joint, and inserting the shim to fill the gap.