Patent ID: 7375474

Claim:
An apparatus for driving a backlight comprising: a plurality of lamps each of which has first and second electrodes; a transformer for receiving an AC waveform to provide high voltage AC waveform to drive the plurality of lamps; a detection circuit for generating a detection voltage corresponding to the high voltage AC wave form; an accumulation operation unit for accumulating the detection voltage from the detection circuit and generating a shutdown signal voltage using the accumulated detection voltage and other stored voltages; and a controller for receiving an input voltage to provide the AC waveform to the transformer and for receiving the shutdown signal voltage to shutdown the plurality of lamps in response to the shutdown signal voltage, wherein the accumulation operation unit includes: a register for sequentially storing the detection voltage therein according to a clock signal; and a shutdown signal generation unit for calculating the stored voltages output from the register according to the clock signal and generating the shutdown signal voltage.