Can the photodiode be damaged by very high incident light power on the active area?
Once the Saturation point is reached, the behavior of the photodiode becomes more and more non-linear until the Damage threshold point is reached. At this point the photodiode is no longer able to turn excess in incident optical power into a photocurrent output and all the extra energy received by the device would be absorbed, typically as heat. This heat inside the device can easily damage it irreversibly as it endangers the fragile wire bonds on the surface of the photodiode.
