Drive circuit

A drive circuit for driving a switching element by applying a drive voltage to a gate of the switching element, the drive circuit comprising:

• a first power supply;
• a second power supply having a negative electrode connected to a negative electrode of the first power supply, and a positive electrode connected to a main electrode of the switching element on a low potential side of the switching element, and providing an output voltage to be variable within a voltage range smaller than the first power supply;
• a power supply switching unit that switches the first and second power supplies for applying the drive voltage based on a drive command that the second power supply is located in a path between the main electrode on the low potential side and the gate when the switching element is driven off, and the first power supply and the second power supply are located in the path to apply a positive voltage to the gate when the switching element is driven on;
• and
• an output switching unit outputting an output voltage switching signal to the second power supply that the output voltage of the second power supply becomes zero in a part of a drive period of the switching element including at least a part of an on-drive period, and the output voltage becomes a predetermined voltage other than zero in a remaining part of the drive period including at least a part of an off-drive period.