Abstract: A driving circuit is disclosed that has low power consumption and supplies a current to a load. The driving circuit includes a constant current circuit section to generate and output a predetermined constant current, a current mirror circuit section to generate a current proportional to an input current supplied from the constant current circuit section and supply the current to the load, and a constant voltage supplying circuit section to generate a constant voltage and supply the constant voltage to a series circuit of the load and an output transistor of the current mirror circuit. The constant voltage supplying circuit section gene-rates the constant voltage so that an output voltage of the current mirror circuit section equals an input voltage of the current mirror circuit section.

Abstract: A semiconductor laser driving unit is disclosed that includes a first part generating a bias current; a second part generating a first current for causing the semiconductor laser to emit light, and outputting the first current to the semiconductor laser in accordance with an input control signal; a third part performing initialization to detect a light emission characteristic of the semiconductor laser, and causing the second part to generate a second current of a value obtained from the detected light emission characteristic; and a fourth part causing the second part to generate the first current in which a set offset current is added to the second current. The first part detects the amount of light emission of the semiconductor laser, and generates and outputs the bias current so that the amount of light emission produced by the sum of the bias current and the first current is a predetermined value.