This paper presents the design and measurements of a 4-level pulse-amplitude-modulation (4-PAM) vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) driver integrated circuit for short-range, high-speed optical communications. The goal of this design is to compensate the power roll-off of VCSELs in order to exploit as much as possible their dynamic range. The circuit is manufactured in a 130 nm SiGe technology and achieves a transmitted optical data rate of 40 Gbit/s. The driver power consumption is only 177 mW including the VCSEL. Thanks to the inductorless design, the chip active area is limited to 0.2 mm ² • To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first multilevel laser driver designed to counteract the power roll-off effect of VCSELs.