Patent ID: 7279958

Claim:
A driver circuit for an electroluminescent lamp (EL), comprising: a power supply circuit that is configured to increase a provided first DC voltage in a series of stages to a second DC voltage, wherein the second DC voltage is arranged at a predetermined level that is substantially greater than a level of the first DC voltage; a converter circuit that is coupled to the power supply circuit and the EL lamp, wherein the converter circuit is arranged to convert the second DC voltage to an AC voltage signal that is operable to illuminate the EL lamp; a discharge circuit that is coupled to the EL lamp and the power supply circuit, wherein the discharge circuit is arranged to transfer electrical charge back into the power supply circuit during each discharge cycle of the AC voltage signal, and wherein the transferred electrical charge is reused for each charging cycle of the AC voltage signal that is employed to illuminate the EL lamp; and a logic circuit that is coupled to each of the power supply circuit, converter circuit and discharge circuit, wherein the logic circuit is arranged to at least enable the stages of the power supply circuit to synthesize a relatively sinusoidal waveform during each discharge cycle of the AC voltage signal.