Patent ID: 8026670

Claim:
An electronic circuit arranged to drive an electroluminescent display and including a plurality of segment electrodes and a common electrode, the electronic circuit comprising a DC supply, an output terminal for each of the plurality of segment electrodes and the common electrode, and at least one supply half-H-bridge arranged to connect at least one of each of the plurality of segment electrodes and the common electrode selectively to one of the DC supply and a reference voltage, each of the at least one supply half-H-bridge comprising a top switch and a bottom switch connected in series and including a junction between the top switch and the bottom switch of the at least one supply half-H-bridge, the output terminal of the at least one of each of the plurality of segment electrodes and the common electrode being connected to the junction, the top switch of the at least one supply half-H bridge being connected to the DC supply and the bottom switch of the at least one supply half-H bridge being connected to the reference voltage, in which a discharge circuit is provided to selectively discharge the electroluminescent display, in which the discharge circuit comprises a discharge half-H-bridge including a top switch and a bottom switch, in which the top switch of the discharge half-H-bridge is connected to the DC supply and to a discharge path, and in which the top switch and the bottom switch of the discharge half-H-bridge are arranged such that, when the top switch of the discharge half-H-bridge is turned on, the bottom switch of the discharge half-H-bridge is turned off and, when the top switch of the discharge half-H-bridge is turned off, the bottom switch of the discharge half-H-bridge is turned on.