The dependence of intrinsic dynamic properties, such as relaxation oscillation frequency, damping K-factor, and spectral chirping under 10 Gbit/s direct modulation, on the number of quantum wells is systematically investigated in 1.55 mum multiquantum-well lambda/4-shifted distributed-feedback lasers. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that the dependence of the above three factors on the number of quantum wells is clearly explained by the linear gain saturation of the quantum-well lasers.