## 6 Conclusions  
The results of the experiments show that the concept of using arrays of SEB for sensing applications is comparable to other devices, such as SETs, and it brings several important advantages, such as elevated operating temperatures, a smaller device footprint and inherent protection from ESD damage. We experimentally confirmed the results of simulations for estimating the number of SEBs needed to outperform drain-coupled RF SET. With the SEB design used throughout the experiments (\(C_{g\,sense}\) - 3 aF) this number is fairly large, \(N>1000\). Our simulations show, however, that within the same \"capacitive budget\" as in the studied SETs, a 100 times improvement in performance for SEBs could be obtained simply by enhancing the sensing gate capacitance. The practicality of an array of SEBs is greatly improved by including a second tuning gate to find a maximum sensitivity point over a smaller voltage range. A considerable improvement in the sensitivity of an optimally designed MN is also demonstrated. The advancements we developed in the area of SEB applications created greater potential to use these sensors in a wider array of applications. The experimentally observed relative ESD immunity compared to traditional SETs stems from two factors: a) lack of DC path through the device, which prevents device destruction upon application of large biases (up to 40 V tested) and b) capacitive voltage division in series \(C_{g}C_{j}\) chain, which for the case of \(C_{j}>>C_{g}\) leads to significant (\(>\)10) attenuation of any spurious voltage across \(C_{j}\) and thus prevents its destruction. A conceptually similar device, a \"DC-decoupled SET\" appears to provide a reasonable compromise between SEB and traditional SET and has to be further explored for use as more rugged sensors in applications where the devices cannot be protected from exposure to large potentials. Increasing the charging energy through further reduction in the total capacitance may also yield devices that can provide the highly sensitive electrometers at elevated temperatures, potentially up to the range accessible by liquid nitrogen (77 K).  
The following are available online at [[http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/24/8797/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/24/8797/s1)]([http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/24/8797/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/24/8797/s1)). Figure S1: Printed circuit board with two RF ports. T.A.Z. designed and fabricated all of the devices and participated in measurements; [PERSON] participated in measurements, designed and implemented software analysis tools for MNs and SEB  
Figure 19: (**a**) Comparison of performance between combined structure (2 DCD SETs +4 SEB) devices (red) and 4 SEB devices only (blue); (**b**) FFT for the respective cases: 2 DCD SETs +4 SEB) devices (red) and 4 SEB devices only (blue) and (**c**) 2D map of \(d\Theta/dV_{g}\) oscillations reveals distinct pattern composed of four crossing lines, characteristic of SEB. \(T=0.305\) K.  
simulations; [PERSON] supervised MN design and signal analysis; [PERSON] participated in MN experiments and performed analysis of MNs; [PERSON]-[PERSON] and [PERSON] participated in ultra-low temperature measurements; [PERSON] designed and ran experiments and performed data analysis and simulations; [PERSON] participated in design of experiments and data analysis; [PERSON] and [PERSON] designed the RF test boards and assisted in the design and implementation of experiments. The manuscript was written by [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] and edited by all authors. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by the US National Science Foundation grants DMR-1904610 and ECCS-1509087.  
The author are thankful to [PERSON] for reading the manuscript and making multiple suggestions.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.