A discharge lamp driving circuit drives a discharge lamp using a high
frequency wave, to start the lamp. A booster/chopper circuit has a
switching element FET1, and boosts an input power supply voltage by
switching the switching element. A boosting transformer supplies the
discharge lamp with the voltage boosted by the booster/chopper circuit. A
booster/driver circuit supplies the switching element FET 1 of the
booster/chopper circuit with a driving signal having a frequency of 10 to
200 kHz, thereby limiting the peak loss of the switching element FET 1 to
200 W or less.
