Patent ID: 7429985

Claim:
A method of driving a semiconductor device, the semiconductor device comprising: a switching device; and a rectifying device; wherein a signal V 1 is input to a first electrode of the rectifying device; wherein a second electrode of the rectifying device is electrically connected to a first electrode of the switching device; and wherein an electric potential V is imparted to a second electrode of the switching device; the method of driving the semiconductor device comprising the steps of: a first step of making the switching device conductive, thus setting the electric potential of the second electrode of the rectifying device to the electric potential V; a second step of making the switching device non-conductive, thus making the voltage between both the electrodes of the rectifying device converge to a threshold value V th of the rectifying device from the state of the first step; and a third step of storing the threshold value V th and obtaining a signal V 2 , which is equal to the signal V 1 offset by the threshold value V th , from the second electrode of the rectifying device.