Mind if I ask what the project was?

Sure.

(waits...:)

Oh.  It was a water quality measuring device.  There was a light source and
a photodetector looking through the water.  As I recall, regulating the
light source was more difficult than doing the measurement.

As for "standoffs", look at Bob Pease's article, "What's All This
Femtoampere Stuff, Anyhow?" for some really low leakage games.
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