Recent advances in semiconductor technology have made it possible to achieve imaging devices that can serve as bionic retinas when implanted within the human eye. Traditional concepts for bionic retina prosthesis involve implantation of a CMOS CCD array in place of the dysfunctional retina of the patient [Ref. 2]. This concept suffers from a limitation of a finite battery life, which leads to frequent replacement of batteries. Secondly, the need to bias each pixel makes the number of electrodes large enough to occupy a large portion of active area on the chip. Moreover, more number of electrodes means greater data bandwidth required for restoring vision. It is proposed to use passive devices like solid state photo-voltaic Cells, which instead of consuming external power would in fact generate signals to stimulate the nerve fibers of the optic nerve. The need for digital data processing can be circumvented as the visual information (photo-generated analog signal) is directly coupled to the ganglion fibers of the macula region. The use of silicon as sensor material makes the device sensitive to infrared wavelengths making it possible for the recipient to have good visibility even at night.