Discharge lamp lighting circuit

Abstract

A discharge lamp lighting circuit includes a DC/DC converter which generates from an input voltage a drive voltage to be applied to a discharge lamp of a driven object. A first drive voltage generating path has one end to which the input voltage is applied, and at the other end of which is an output capacitor on an output side of the DC/DC converter. A second drive voltage generating path has one end to which the input voltage is applied, and at the other end of which is the output capacitor. The second drive voltage generating path is different from the first drive voltage generating path. A control circuit controls ON/OFF of the first drive voltage generating path. The discharge lamp lighting circuit is arranged so that the voltage of the output capacitor when the first drive voltage generating path is in an ON-state becomes higher than the voltage of the output capacitor when the first drive voltage generating path is not so.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.