Apparatus for driving inductive load

An apparatus for driving an inductive load, comprising:

• a low-side switching element provided in a current flowing path of the inductive load connected to a DC power supply;
• a flywheel diode connected to the inductive load in parallel;
• a current detecting resistor provided on a lower voltage side than the inductive load in the current flowing path of the inductive load for detecting current flowing through the inductive load;
• a peak hold circuit inputting voltage corresponding to current flowing through the inductive load via the current detecting resistor when the switching element is on and holding the voltage inputted via the current detecting resistor when the switching element is on, when the switching element is off;
• and
• a control section performing current control to control current flowing through the inductive load by turning on/off of the switching element at a duty ratio in response to a target current value while the control section performs feedback control of output of the peak hold circuit,
• wherein the control section performs current control of the inductive load when the duty ratio is larger than a threshold value and performs voltage control of the inductive load when the duty ratio is smaller than the threshold value.