Patent ID: 7633240

Claim:
A lamp driving apparatus, comprising: a plurality of two-electrode lamps arranged in groups; a plurality of two-winding balance coils with each corresponding to one of the plurality of two-electrode lamps; a plurality of capacitors, and a transformer having two secondary windings; wherein first capacitors are connected to first electrodes of a first lamp group and first windings of first balance coils are connected to second electrodes of the first lamp group, and first windings of second balance coils are connected to first electrodes of a second lamp group and second capacitors are connected to second electrodes of the second lamp group so that current flowing through the two-winding balance coils to some lamps is affected by current flowing through balance coils to others of the lamps, wherein the first balance coils are connected to one of the secondary windings of the transformer, and the second balance coils are connected to the other of the secondary windings of the transformer.