Led lighting device and lighting equipment

An LED lighting device comprising:

• a DC power source circuit;
• a high frequency generation circuit including an inverter circuit having a switching element and a resonance circuit having a series-connected inductor and condenser, in which the switching element is on-off controlled by a predetermined frequency and DC voltage input from the DC power source circuit is converted into a high frequency AC voltage;
• a rectification smoothing circuit having an input side which is parallelly connected to the condenser or inductor so that the input high frequency AC voltage is rectified and smoothed for output;
• a light emitting diode series connected to an output side of the rectification smoothing circuit;
• and
• a protection circuit performing a protecting operation for a case where the light emitting diode is damaged.