US Patent 7773646 Semiconductor light source and light-emitting device drive circuit

A semiconductor light source includes a light-emitting device 101 having a plurality of semiconductor layers made of nitride semiconductors, and a drive circuit 102 for driving the light-emitting device 101. The drive circuit 102 performs forward drive operation, in which a forward current is supplied to the light-emitting device to make the light-emitting device 101 emit light, and reverse drive operation, in which a reverse bias is applied to the light-emitting device. The magnitude of the reverse bias is limited by the value of a reverse current flowing through the light-emitting device.