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A sensor assembly for electric field sensing is provided. The sensor assembly may include an array of Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS)-based resonant tunneling devices. A resonant tunneling device may be configured to generate a resonant tunneling signal in response to the electric field. The

A sensor assembly for electric field sensing is provided. The sensor assembly may include an array of Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS)-based resonant tunneling devices. A resonant tunneling device may be configured to generate a resonant tunneling signal in response to the electric field. The resonant tunneling device may include at least one electron state definer responsive to changes in at least one respective controllable characteristic of the electron state definer. The changes in the controllable characteristic are configured to affect the tunneling signal. An excitation device may be coupled to the resonant tunneling device to effect at least one of the changes in the controllable characteristic affecting the tunneling signal. A controller may be coupled to the resonant tunneling device and the excitation device to control the changes of the controllable characteristic in accordance with an automated control strategy configured to reduce an effect of noise on a measurement of the electric field.

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1. A system for non-contactively measuring an electric field generated in an object, the system comprising: a sensor assembly comprising a resonant tunneling device configured to generate a resonant tunneling signal in response to the electric field, wherein the resonant tunneling device comprises a

1. A system for non-contactively measuring an electric field generated in an object, the system comprising: a sensor assembly comprising a resonant tunneling device configured to generate a resonant tunneling signal in response to the electric field, wherein the resonant tunneling device comprises at least one electron state definer responsive to changes in at least one respective controllable characteristic of the electron state definer, the changes in said at least one controllable characteristic configured to affect the tunneling signal;an excitation device coupled to the resonant tunneling device to effect at least one of the changes in said at least one controllable characteristic affecting the tunneling signal; anda controller coupled to the resonant tunneling device and the excitation device to control the changes of said at least one controllable characteristic in accordance with an automated control strategy configured to reduce an effect of noise on a measurement of the electric field. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a state machine configured to execute a number of states consistent with the control strategy configured to reduce the effect of noise on a measurement of the electric field. 3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a reference device configured to sense at least one non-electric field variable affecting the measurement of the electric field, the controller coupled to the reference device to reduce a noise effect from said at least one non-electric field variable on the measurement of the electric field. 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor assembly comprises a Micro-Electro-Mechanical systems (MEMS)-based resonant tunneling device, wherein said at least one electron state definer comprises a gap, wherein the controllable characteristic of the gap comprises a gap spacing between elements of the tunneling device that define the gap, and further wherein the excitation device is configured to effect a change of the gap spacing affecting the tunneling signal. 5. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one electron state definer further comprises a bias signal, wherein the controllable characteristic of the bias signal comprises a bias voltage applied to an electrode of the tunneling device. 6. The system of claim 5, wherein a bias generator responsive to the controller is configured to effect a change of the bias signal affecting the tunneling signal. 7. The system of claim 5, wherein said at least one electron state definer further comprises a heterojunction interface, wherein the controllable characteristic of the heterojunction interface comprises a thickness of the heterojunction interface. 8. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one electron state definer is selected from the group consisting of a gap between elements of the tunneling device, a heterojunction interface in the tunneling device, a bias signal applied to an electrode of the tunneling device, and a combination of said electron state definers. 9. The system of claim 2, wherein the state machine comprises a first state wherein said at least one controllable characteristic of the electron state definer is selected to suppress a response of the tunneling device to the electric field to obtain a measurement of noise. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the state machine comprises a second state wherein said at least one controllable characteristic of the electron state definer is selected to elicit the response of the tunneling device to the electric field to obtain a measurement of the tunneling signal plus noise. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the state machine comprises a third state comprising a subtraction of the measurement obtained in the second state from the measurement obtained in the first state to obtain a measurement of the tunneling signal, which is substantially free of noise. 12. The system of claim 4, wherein the controllable characteristic of the gap is modulated by the excitation device to cause a frequency shift in a response of the tunneling device to the electric field from a first frequency region subject to a first signal-to-noise ratio to a second frequency region subject to a second signal-to-noise ratio, wherein a value of the second signal-to-noise ratio is higher than a value of the second signal-to-noise ratio. 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the excitation device is actuated in response to a sequence of pulses arranged to provide a respective on-state for the excitation device during a first time interval to cause the frequency shift to the second frequency region, the sequence of pulses further arranged to provide a respective off-state for the excitation device during a second time interval sufficiently close to the first time interval to obtain a measurement of the response of the tunneling device to the electric field while 1) the response of the tunneling device to the electric field remains in said second frequency region, and 2) the excitation device is in the off-state. 14. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor assembly comprises an array of Micro-Electro-Mechanical system (MEMS)-based resonant tunneling devices. 15. The system of claim 14, wherein at least some of the array of resonant tunneling devices share in common at least one of the following devices: the excitation device, the controller, and a signal conditioning device. 16. The system of claim 14, wherein each resonant tunneling device in at least some of the array of resonant tunneling devices has at least one individually dedicated device from the following devices: the excitation device, the controller and a signal conditioning device. 17. The system of claim 2 further comprising a signal conditioning device coupled to the resonant tunneling device to provide signal conditioning to the tunneling signal, wherein the signal condition device comprises a high impedance input stage for receiving the tunneling signal from the tunneling device. 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the signal conditioning device further comprises at least one analog-to-digital converter coupled to supply a digitized tunneling signal to the state machine. 19. The system of claim 14, wherein the controller comprises a state machine configured to execute a number of states consistent with the control strategy configured to reduce the effect of noise on a measurement of the electric field, the system further comprising a multi-channel signal conditioning device including a multiplexer configured to multiplex a plurality of signals conditioned by the multi-channel signal conditioning device, wherein the multiplexer is controlled by the controller to synchronously multiplex respective measurements based on the states of the state machine. 20. The system of claim 17, wherein the signal conditioning device is electrically closely coupled to the resonant tunneling device in an integrated circuit package. 21. The system of claim 1, wherein the excitation device is selected from the group consisting of an electrostatic excitation device, a magnetic excitation device, a thermal excitation device, an acoustic excitation device, a piezo-electric excitation device, a shape memory alloy based excitation device, or a combination thereof. 22. The system of claim 14, wherein the controller is configured to execute the control strategy to reduce the effect of noise on a measurement of the electric field in a respective tunneling device of the array of resonant tunneling devices based on information acquired from at least a neighboring resonant tunneling device of the array of resonant tunneling devices. 23. The system of claim 1, wherein the excitation device comprises a Micro-Electro-Mechanical systems (MEMS)-based excitation device, wherein said controllable characteristic is effected by the (MEMS)-based excitation device by way of an actuation selected from the group consisting of an electrostatic actuation, a magnetic actuation, a thermal actuation, an acoustic actuation, a piezo-electric actuation, a shape memory alloy based actuation, or a combination thereof. 24. A system for non-contactively measuring an electric field generated in an object, the system comprising: a sensor assembly comprising an array of Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS)-based resonant tunneling devices, each tunneling device configured to generate a respective resonant tunneling signal in response to the electric field and comprising at least one electron state definer responsive to changes in at least one respective controllable characteristic of the electron state definer, the changes in said at least one controllable characteristic configured to affect the tunneling signal;an excitation device configured to effect at least one of the changes in said at least one controllable characteristic affecting the tunneling signal;a controller configured to control the changes of said at least one controllable characteristic; anda signal conditioning device configured to provide signal conditioning to the tunneling signal,wherein at least some of the array of resonant tunneling devices share in common at least one of the following devices: the excitation device, the controller, and the signal conditioning device,wherein the electric field comprises at least one generally non-varying characteristic, wherein said at least some of the array of resonant tunneling devices is sharingly controlled, excited and/or conditioned by the corresponding shared device consistent with said at least one generally non-varying characteristic of the electric field, wherein said at least some of the array of resonant tunneling devices are configured to map a spatial distribution of the electric field. 25. A system for non-contactively measuring at least one electric field generated in an object, the system comprising: a sensor assembly comprising an array of Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS)-based resonant tunneling devices, each tunneling device configured to generate a respective resonant tunneling signal in response to said at least one electric field and comprising at least one electron state definer responsive to changes in at least one respective controllable characteristic of the electron state definer, the changes in said at least one controllable characteristic configured to affect the tunneling signal;an excitation device configured to effect at least one of the changes in said at least one controllable characteristic affecting the tunneling signal;a controller configured to control the changes of said at least one controllable characteristic; anda signal conditioning device configured to provide signal conditioning to the resonant tunneling signal,wherein each resonant tunneling device in at least some of the array of resonant tunneling devices has at least one individually dedicated device from the following devices: the excitation device, the controller and the signal conditioning device,wherein said at least one electric field and at least a further electric field generated in the object have at least one different characteristic, wherein one or more of said at least some of the array of resonant tunneling devices is controlled, excited and/or conditioned by the corresponding dedicated device consistent with said at least one different characteristic of the electric fields, wherein said at least some of the array of resonant tunneling devices are configured to map a spatial distribution of said at least one electric field and said further electric field having said at least one different characteristic.