Patent ID: 7525260

Claim:
A discharge lamp lighting apparatus to light a plurality of discharge lamps, the apparatus comprising: a step-up transformer group comprising at least one step-up transformer and having a plurality of outputs to which the plurality of discharge lamps are connected; at least one bridge circuit connected to an input side of the step-up transformer group; a control circuit to drive the bridge circuit in a controlled manner; a plurality of current sensing circuits disposed at the low voltage side outputs of the plurality of outputs of the step-up transformer group and functioning to a lamp current of each of the discharge lamps; at least one first common line to which at least two low voltage side outputs of the plurality of the outputs of the step-up transformer group are connected, wherein the low voltage side outputs connected to the first common line include two kinds of outputs provided in an equal number, and lamp currents flowing respectively in the two kinds of outputs are phase-shifted by 180 degrees from each other; a second common line connected to outputs of the plurality of current sensing circuits; a malfunction detecting circuit comprising a first sense resistor to convert into a sense voltage a synthetic current of the lamp currents synthesized on the first common line and a comparator to compare the sense voltage with a predetermined reference voltage, the malfunction detecting circuit functioning to output a malfunction detecting signal when the sense voltage exceeds the reference voltage a second sense resistor having one terminal thereof connected to the second common line and having the other terminal thereof connected to ground potential, the second sense resistor functioning to convert a maximum of the lamp current of each of the discharge lamps into a sense voltage, wherein the sense voltage of the second sense resistor is feedbacked to the control circuit as a feedback signal, whereby the lamp currents of the plurality of discharge lamps can be controlled; and a protection circuit to stop driving of the bridge circuit when the malfunction detecting circuit outputs the malfunction detecting signal.