Patent ID: 8081199

Claim:
A light emitting element drive apparatus to drive a plurality of light emitting arrays, comprising: a plurality of voltage applying sections that are provided to generate a plurality of application voltages for-driving, the number of the voltage applying sections being smaller than the number of the light emitting arrays; a switching section that switches voltage applying sections to which the plurality of light emitting element arrays are individually connected, between the plurality of voltage applying sections; and a controlling section that controls the switching section, wherein: each of the plurality of voltage applying sections generates an application voltage to apply to said light emitting element arrays connected to that voltage applying section, based on a detection voltage determined based on a maximum forward voltage drop among forward voltage drops of the light emitting element arrays connected to that voltage applying section; and the controlling section divides the plurality of light emitting element arrays into a plurality of groups, the plurality of groups corresponding to the plurality of voltage applying sections respectively, such that, a total value of differences between said forward voltage drops and said application voltage is minimum in each of the plurality of light emitting arrays, and the plurality of light emitting element arrays are connected to different voltage applying sections per group.