Patent ID: 7626341

Claim:
A discharge lamp lighting apparatus comprising: an input power supply; a power supply circuit that increases or reduces a voltage of an output of the input power supply; a bridge circuit that performs AC operation of a discharge lamp by switching the polarity of the output of the power supply circuit and simultaneously applying the output to the discharge lamp; a lighting circuit that starts the discharge lamp; a control circuit that controls the power supply circuit; a drive circuit that drives the bridge circuit; and the bridge circuit comprising: one serial circuit with a first switching element connected to the positive side of the power supply circuit and a second switching element connected to the negative side of the power supply circuit, and another serial circuit with a third switching element connected to the positive side of the power supply circuit and a fourth switching element connected to the negative side of the power supply circuit, wherein an overcurrent suppressing circuit comprising a resistance element and a switching element and a switching element connected to the resistance element in parallel therewith is connected between a connection point between the second switching element and the fourth switching element and the negative side of the power supply circuit, and by turning off the switching element of the overcurrent suppressing circuit with the control circuit while over-current flows into the discharge lamp, voltage subtracting voltage between both ends of the resistance element of the overcurrent suppressing circuit from given drive voltage outputted from the drive circuit is applied to the second switching element and the fourth switching element as the voltage for current control, so that the voltage is automatically adjusted according to the volume of the over-current flowing in the resistance element in which to act the second switching element and the fourth switching element in an unsaturated area for suppressing the over-current.