Patent ID: 7692456

Claim:
A semiconductor integrated circuit comprising: a pair of input terminals; a first drive circuit connected to said pair of terminals to convert a pair of first voltage pulse signals, each said first voltage pulse signal having a first reference potential and being input using said pair of input terminals, into a pair of respective second voltage pulse signals each having a second reference potential that is higher than the first reference potential; a second drive circuit connected to a pair of outputs of said first drive circuit and constructed to generate a fourth voltage pulse signal having a voltage swing that is based on a potential difference between the second reference potential and a ground potential to drive an external output load on the basis of the pair of second voltage pulse signals being output from the pair of outputs of said first drive circuit; and an output commonly connected to a pair of outputs of said second drive circuit that outputs the fourth voltage pulse signal from said second drive circuit to the external output load, wherein said first drive circuit is integrated with said second drive circuit monolithically into a single semiconductor substrate, wherein the pair of outputs of said first drive circuit are mutually DC-coupled with a pair of inputs of said second drive circuit, respectively, and wherein said first drive circuit includes: a pair of voltage-to-current converters configured to convert a respective pair of said third voltage pulse signals based on the pair of first voltage pulse signals into a pair of current pulse signals, respectively; and a pair of current-to-voltage converters configured to convert the current pulse signals received from said pair of voltage-to-current converters into the pair of second voltage pulse signals, respectively, such that the first reference potential of the respective first voltage signals are changed to the second reference potential in the pair of second voltage pulse signals.