Patent ID: 8618890

Claim:
A driver circuit that causes a vibrator to oscillate, the driver circuit comprising: a current/voltage conversion section that converts an oscillation current of the vibrator that has been input via a first signal line into a voltage; a drive signal generation section that generates a drive signal that causes the vibrator to oscillate based on a signal that has been converted into a voltage by the current/voltage conversion section, and supplies the drive signal to the vibrator via a second signal line; an oscillation detection section that detects whether or not the oscillation current has reached a predetermined value after the vibrator has started to oscillate based on the signal that has been converted into a voltage by the current/voltage conversion section; a startup oscillation section that assists an oscillation operation of the vibrator until the oscillation current reaches the predetermined value based on a detection result of the oscillation detection section; a first capacitor; and a switch that separates the first capacitor from the second signal line until the oscillation current reaches the predetermined value, and connects the first capacitor to the second signal line when the oscillation current has reached the predetermined value based on the detection result of the oscillation detection section.