a cathode inductance 134 the inclusion of the transformer 220 in the laser diode driver ic output stage 210 as described in accordance with the principles of the present invention overcomes several disadvantages of conventional laser diode driver integrated circuits and provides an improved output drive signal at low frequencies of data transmission from the laser diode driver integrated circuit 202 the output return loss s 22 of the output impedance zout looking into the output pin 218 from outside of the integrated circuit package 208 is substantially determined by the value of the second termination resistor 230 for example if the second termination resistor has a value of 50 ohms the output impedance zout will be substantially equal to 50 ohms at low frequencies at high frequencies of data transmission the inductance of the primary side lp of the transformer 220 compensates for the parasitic capacitance 244 of the collector node of the second switch transistor 224 that arises from the capacitance of the semiconductor junction between the base and collector this compensation occurs because the capacitance effects on the output signal due to the parasitic capacitance 244 of the second switch transistor 224 are suppressed by the inductance of the primary side lp at still higher frequencies the primary side resistor 232 placed in parallel to the primary side lp of the transformer 220 functions to repress the component of the output impedance zout caused.