  We present results on a double-island single-electron transistor (DISET)
operated at radio-frequency (rf) for fast and highly sensitive detection of
charge motion in the solid state. Using an intuitive definition for the charge
sensitivity, we compare a DISET to a conventional single-electron transistor
(SET). We find that a DISET can be more sensitive than a SET for identical,
minimum device resistances in the Coulomb blockade regime. This is of
particular importance for rf operation where ideal impedance matching to 50 Ohm
transmission lines is only possible for a limited range of device resistances.
We report a charge sensitivity of 5.6E-6 e/sqrt(Hz) for a rf-DISET, together
with a demonstration of single-shot detection of small (<=0.1e) charge signals
on microsecond timescales.
