Patent ID: 7495398

Claim:
A discharge lamp lighting apparatus comprising: an inverter circuit comprising a switch circuit and a high-voltage transformer defining primary and secondary sides, wherein the primary side of the high-voltage transformer is driven by the inverter circuit thereby lighting a discharge lamp connected at the secondary side of the high-voltage transformer; a step-up circuit connected at an input stage of the inverter circuit; a control circuit to output a switch circuit controlling signal for controlling an operation of the switch circuit and a step-up circuit controlling signal for controlling an operation of the step-up circuit; an on-off switching circuit connected at an input voltage line; a switch signal buffering circuit which is connected between the control circuit and the switch circuit, and which relays the switch circuit controlling signal, wherein a drive voltage is applied to the control circuit without going through the on-off switching circuit while the drive voltage is applied to the switch signal buffering circuit via the on-off switching circuit; and a reference voltage shifting circuit which is connected between the control circuit and the on-off switching circuit, and which is configured to operate so that the control circuit increases an output of the step-up circuit temporarily when the on-off switching circuit transists to an on-state.