Abstract: An electroluminescent lamp is driven by a driving circuit that can supply an approximately sinusoidal signal, a bi-directional sawtooth signal or a single-ended sawtooth signal. Switches selectively transfer energy from a battery to an inductor and then from the inductor to the lamp. In one embodiment, the lamp voltage is compared to a reference waveform, such as a sinusoid. The switches are activated responsive to the error between the lamp voltage and reference waveform to minimize the error. The lamp can thus be driven with a closer approximation of the reference waveform.