An H-bridge integrated laser driver optimizes power dissipation, impedance matching, low-swing and high-swing reliability for electro-absorption modulated laser (EML) and directly modulated laser diode (DML) applications. The laser driver includes a retimer for converting low-speed parallel data to a high-speed serial bit stream and to an inverted representation of the high-speed parallel bit stream, an M-bit PMOS DAC configured to receive a first buffered bit stream, an N-bit NMOS DAC configured to receive a second buffered bit stream substantially synchronized with the first buffered bit stream. A protective device is coupled between the M-bit DAC and the N-bit DAC. A first DC level-shifting predriver array is coupled between the retimer and the M-bit DAC to receive the high-speed parallel bit stream and the inverted high-speed parallel bit stream, and a second DC level-shifting predriver array is coupled between the retimer and the N-bit DAC to receive the high-speed parallel bit stream and the inverted high-speed parallel bit stream. An impedance matching module is coupled to an output of the protective device. The laser driver may be integrated on a CMOS communication chip.