In 1982 Kevin Bohacz developed for Spex a system for non-destructive reading of CID array detectors. The system was ideal for use in solid state spectrometers. This research project lead to a technical breakthrough in reading data from CID arrays without losing the information accumulated in the CID device.

A CID array is a device used to image light much like the those devices used in solid-state video cameras.

The CID array was cooled using liquid nitrogen and a solid state heat pump. This cooling reduced the shot noise and particle mobility to fewer the 500 electrons. By this means the CID array's sensitivity approached that needed to measure single photons.

The new reading technique involved using (capacitive) electro-static charges to slosh electrons from one accumulation well to an adjacent well. During the sloshing process the amount of charge needed to displace the electrons was measured. The magnitude of this charge is directly proportional to the number of electrons in the well; and therefore directly proportional to the amount of light that had irradiated the light-sensitive semiconductor material above the well. Prior to the development of this non-destructive sloshing technique, the only way to measure the number of electrons in the well was to inject them into the substrate thereby destroying the charge and losing the retained optical image.

This non-destructive technique allowed the CID array to act like a solid-state piece of film but with one major difference; the CID array could be "read" during the exposure process with the intermediate measurements being digitally stored. This allowed for the CID array's exposure to be monitored while in progress. This type of non-destructive reading made possible digital processing that greatly extended the dynamic range of the CID array and prevented loss of data.

Besides their use in spectroscopy, intensified non-destructive reading CID arrays have been coupled to optical telescopes and used to image very distant objects is space.