WO2023090146A1

WO2023090146A1 - Vehicular lamp

Info

Publication number: WO2023090146A1
Application number: PCT/JP2022/040815
Authority: WO
Inventors: 昌宏澤田
Original assignee: 株式会社小糸製作所
Priority date: 2021-11-22
Filing date: 2022-10-31
Publication date: 2023-05-25

Abstract

The present invention implements a highly reliable vehicular lamp having a function of melting snow and ice by a heater part, the vehicular lamp preventing breakage of electronic components due to static electricity.　This vehicular lamp comprises: a lamp body that has an opening; an outer cover that is attached to the lamp body and covers the opening; a heater part that is in contact with the outer cover and generates heat by power feeding; and an electrostatic protection circuit that performs electrostatic protection on a power feeding path to the heater part.

Description

vehicle lamp

The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp, and more particularly to the technical field of a vehicle lamp having a heater section for melting snow and ice.

For example, in vehicle lighting fixtures such as vehicle headlamps and rear combination lamps, when snow or ice adheres to the outer cover (lens), it interferes with proper light irradiation. For this reason, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-200010, a vehicle lamp is provided with a heater portion that generates heat when power is supplied to the outer cover so as to melt the snow and ice adhering to the outer cover. is proposed.

JP 2018-185988 A

Here, when the vehicle lamp is attached to the vehicle, the outer cover faces the space outside the vehicle, is susceptible to air friction due to running of the vehicle, and is easily charged with static electricity.
At this time, if the heater portion is provided in the outer cover, the electric heating wire of the heater portion may pick up static electricity, and electronic components connected to the heating wire may be destroyed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a highly reliable vehicle lighting fixture having a heater portion capable of melting snow and ice, which prevents destruction of electronic components caused by static electricity. The purpose is to realize

A vehicle lamp according to the present invention includes a lamp body having an opening, an outer cover attached to the lamp body and covering the opening, a heater portion in contact with the outer cover and generating heat when power is supplied, and a heater portion. and a static electricity protection circuit that protects the electricity supply path from static electricity.
The static electricity protection circuit prevents overcurrent caused by static electricity from flowing through electronic components connected to the heating wire of the heater section.

In the above vehicle lamp according to the present invention, it is desirable that the heating wire in the heater section is formed of a two-dimensional wiring pattern.
As a result, the heat-generating portion of the heater portion spreads two-dimensionally, and the effect of melting snow and ice can be enhanced.

In the above vehicle lamp according to the present invention, it is desirable that the static electricity protection circuit is composed of a capacitor.
In this case, at least the capacitor can be the only additional component required for electrostatic protection.

In the above vehicle lamp according to the present invention, the ON/OFF of the heater section is performed by a switching device as an IPD, and the electrostatic protection circuit is an overcurrent protection circuit provided in the switching device as the IPD. It is desirable that
The IPD mentioned here is an abbreviation of "Intelligent Power Device". According to the above configuration, electrostatic protection is realized by the overcurrent protection function of the switching device as the IPD.

It is desirable that the above-described vehicle lamp according to the present invention includes a negative electrode side protection circuit that protects the IPD from overcurrent flowing from the negative electrode side.
As a result, it is possible to prevent overcurrent from being input from the negative electrode side due to static electricity.

According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a highly reliable vehicle lamp that prevents destruction of electronic components caused by static electricity with respect to a vehicle lamp that has a function of melting snow or ice by a heater.

1 is a front view of a vehicle lamp as an embodiment according to the present invention; FIG. 1 is a top view of a vehicle lamp as an embodiment according to the present invention; FIG. 1 is a side view of a vehicle lamp as an embodiment according to the present invention; FIG. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the vehicle lamp taken along the line X-X' shown in FIG. 1; It is a figure for demonstrating the electrical structural example of the heater control unit as 1st embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an electrical configuration example of a heater control unit as a second embodiment; FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an example of an electrical schematic configuration of an IPD switch section included in a heater control unit as a second embodiment; It is a figure for demonstrating the electrical structural example of the heater control unit as a modification. It is a perspective view which shows the structural example of a film-shaped heater part.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A vehicle lamp as an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
1, 2, 3, and 4 are a front view, a top view, a side view, and a sectional view, respectively, of a vehicle lamp 1 as an embodiment according to the present invention. Note that FIG. 4 shows a cross section taken along the cutting line XX' in FIG.
In the following description, the side irradiated with the light emitted by the vehicle lamp 1 is defined as the front side. Moreover, the vertical and horizontal directions shall conform to the directions when the device is attached to the vehicle.

In this example, the vehicle lamp 1 is configured as a pair of left and right rear combination lamps provided at the rear end of the vehicle, and includes brake lamps, tail lamps, direction indicator lamps (turn signal lamps), and so on. A predetermined number of lamp portions (light emitting portions) functioning as back lamps are formed at predetermined positions.
In this example, the vehicle lamp 1 is configured as a lamp for a large vehicle such as a truck, and operates by receiving an input voltage of the 24V system.

A vehicle lamp 1 includes a lamp body 2 , an outer cover 3 , a lamp unit 4 , and a heater portion 5 .
The lamp body 2 is formed in a box-like shape having an opening 2a on the front side (the rear end side when the vehicle is used as a reference) of the vehicle lamp 1, and a light source is provided in the space behind the opening 2a. A lamp unit 4 including 4a is arranged. Specifically, the lamp body 2 has a space as a lamp chamber 2b on the far side (rear side: front side when the vehicle is used as a reference) of the opening 2a (see FIG. 4). A lamp unit 4 is arranged in the lamp chamber 2b. The lighting unit 4 comprehensively represents a portion in which the above-described lamp portions such as the brake light and the tail lamp are formed, and the lighting unit 4 has a light emitting element that serves as the light source 4a of each lamp portion. In this example, an LED (Light Emitting Diode) is adopted as the light emitting element as the light source 4a.
Here, an LED generates less heat during light emission than other light-emitting elements such as incandescent lamps having filaments. Therefore, when an LED is used as the light source of the vehicle lamp 1, it tends to be difficult to melt the snow and ice due to the light emitted from the light emitting element.

The outer cover 3 is formed as a transparent cover (lens portion of the lamp), and is attached to the front end portion of the lamp body 2 to cover the opening 2a.

The heater section 5 is a heat generating device configured to generate heat when supplied with power. The heater part 5 has a heating wire 5a, and generates heat by supplying power to the heating wire 5a.
In the heater section 5 , the heating wire 5 a is provided in contact with the outer cover 3 . Specifically, in this example, the heating wire 5a is in contact with the inner surface of the outer cover 3 (see FIG. 4). By being formed on the inner surface of the outer cover 3, the heating wire 5a is protected.

Here, in this specification, the heating wire 5a “contacts” the outer cover 3 not only when the heating wire 5a is in direct contact with the outer cover 3, but also when the heating wire 5a is in contact with the outer cover 3 via an adhesive material, or when the heating wire 5a is in contact with the outer cover 3. It is assumed that the case of being in contact (contacting via a heat-conducting material) is also included.

In this example, the heating wire 5 a is formed by applying a paste-like conductive material (hereinafter also referred to as conductive paste) to the outer cover 3 . Specifically, the heating wire 5a in this case is formed by applying silver paste. As an example, the wire width of the heating wire 5a in this case is about 0.5 mm to 1.0 mm.

In this example, the heating wire 5a is formed by a two-dimensional wiring pattern. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the heating wire 5a is wired so as to have a plurality of upwardly projecting portions and downwardly projecting portions, respectively. Specifically, a wiring pattern is employed in which upwardly convex portions and downwardly convex portions are alternately arranged in the horizontal direction.

Further, in the vehicle lamp 1, a heater control unit 10 in which an electric circuit for controlling the heater section 5 is formed in a space formed inside an outer casing composed of the lamp body 2 and the outer cover 3. is provided (see FIG. 4).
In this example, the heater control unit 10 is arranged behind the lamp unit 4 so as not to be seen through the outer cover 3 .

Although the vehicle lamp 1 is also provided with a control unit (light source control unit) in which an electric circuit for controlling the light emitting operation of the light source 4a is formed, the illustration thereof is omitted here.

In the vehicular lamp 1 configured as described above, the heating of the heater portion 5 accelerates the melting of snow and ice adhering to the outer cover 3, so that the light can be appropriately irradiated. can. In particular, when applied to a rear combination lamp, it is possible to improve the visibility of the lamp section from the driver of the following vehicle, pedestrians, etc., and to improve safety.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining an electrical configuration example of the heater control unit 10 as the first embodiment.
5 also shows the heating wire 5a in the heater section 5 together with the electrical configuration of the heater control unit 10. As shown in FIG.

As illustrated, the heater control unit 10 has a first step-down circuit 11, a second step-down circuit 12, a heater control section 13, a switch SW, and a capacitor C, and also has a positive input terminal Tip, a negative input terminal Tim, and a signal input terminal Ts, a positive output terminal Top, a negative output terminal Tom, and a temperature input terminal Tt.

As shown, an input voltage Vin is applied between the positive input terminal Tip and the negative output terminal Tom. The input voltage Vin is a DC voltage output from the vehicle battery.
As described above, in this example, the vehicle lamp 1 operates on the 24V system, and a DC voltage of approximately 24V is applied as the input voltage Vin.

The first step-down circuit 11 steps down the input voltage Vin to a predetermined voltage value. Specifically, in this example, the 24V system input voltage Vin is stepped down to 15V.

The second step-down circuit 12 steps down the voltage of 15 V obtained by the step-down operation of the first step-down circuit 11 to obtain the operating voltage of the heater control section 13 . In this example, the rated input voltage of the heater control section 13 is set to 10 V, and the second step-down circuit 12 steps down the input voltage of 15 V to 10 V and outputs it to the heater control section 13 .

In this example, a 15V system voltage obtained by the step-down operation of the first step-down circuit 11 is used as the drive voltage for the heater section 5 .
The switch SW is composed of a transistor such as a MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor), for example, and is inserted on the supply line of the 15V system driving voltage to the heater section 5 .
A driving voltage is applied to the heater portion 5 when the switch SW is ON (conductive), and no driving voltage is applied to the heater portion 5 when the switch SW is OFF.

It should be noted that it is not essential to use a transistor as the switch SW. For example, an electromagnetic relay or the like can be used as the switch SW. The switch SW may be configured to switch between a state in which a drive voltage is applied to the heater section 5 and a state in which the drive voltage is not applied.

In the heater section 5, one end of the heating wire 5a is connected to the switch SW through the positive output terminal Top, and the other end of the heating wire 5a is grounded through the negative output terminal Tom.

The heater control section 13 is an electric circuit section that controls the operation of the heater section 5 .
The heater control unit 13 is connected to the thermistor 16 via the temperature input terminal Tt, and receives the light emission status signal Si via the signal input terminal Ts.
The light emission status signal Si is a signal indicating the light emission status of the light source 4a in the lamp unit 4, specifically, the status of whether or not the light source 4a is in the light emission state. As an example, in this example, it is assumed that the light emission status signal Si is a signal indicating whether or not the aforementioned taillight is in the light emission state.
The light emission status signal Si is supplied, for example, from the aforementioned light source control unit.

The thermistor 16 is a temperature detection element provided to control the heater section 5 according to the outside air temperature. In this example, the thermistor 16 is arranged outside the heater control unit 10 at a predetermined position in a space formed inside an outer housing composed of the lamp body 2 and the outer cover 3 .
The thermistor 16 may be arranged outside the housing of the vehicle lamp 1 or may be formed on the same substrate as the heater control unit 10 .
The thermistor 16 can provide temperature information that correlates with the outside air temperature.

The heater control section 13 has an electric circuit that realizes the functions of the heater ON/OFF control section 14 and the thermistor monitoring section 15 .
The thermistor monitoring unit 15 compares the temperature value detected by the thermistor 16 with a predetermined threshold value and detects disconnection of the thermistor 16 .

The heater ON/OFF control unit 14 performs ON/OFF control of the switch SW based on the result of the above comparison and disconnection detection by the thermistor monitoring unit 15 and the light emission status signal Si input from the signal input terminal Ts. .

In this example, the ON condition of the heater section 5 is set as follows.
- The lamp portion (at least the tail lamp lamp portion in this example) is in a light-emitting state and the outside temperature is 5 degrees Celsius or less.
・Outside air temperature is 15 degrees Celsius or higher When the heater unit 5 is in the OFF state (that is, the switch SW is in the OFF state), the heater ON/OFF control unit 14 turns ON the switch SW in response to the satisfaction of the ON condition. to turn on the heater section 5.
Further, the heater ON/OFF control section 14 turns off the switch SW to turn off the heater section 5 when the above-described OFF condition is satisfied when the heater section 5 is in the ON state.

Further, the heater ON/OFF control unit 14 performs control to forcibly turn off the switch SW as fail-safe control of the heater unit 5 when the thermistor monitoring unit 15 detects disconnection of the thermistor 16 .

Here, in the heater control unit 10 as the first embodiment, the capacitor C is provided as an electrostatic protection circuit that protects the power supply path to the heater section 5 from electrostatics.
As shown, the capacitor C is connected in parallel with the heater section 5 when viewed from the switch SW. Specifically, the capacitor C has one terminal connected to the connection point between the switch SW and the positive output terminal Top, and the other terminal connected between the negative output terminal Tom and earth (the negative line of the heater driving voltage). )It is connected to the.
In this example, the capacitor C is arranged inside the heater control unit 10 , but may be arranged outside the heater control unit 10 , such as being arranged in the outer cover 3 .

When a current caused by the static electricity charged on the outer cover 3 flows through the heating wire 5a of the heater portion 5, the capacitor C is charged with the current. As a result, it is possible to prevent an excessive current caused by static electricity from flowing to electronic components such as the switch SW connected to the heating wire 5a, thereby achieving protection against static electricity.

Next, a second embodiment will be described. The second embodiment uses an IPD (Intelligent Power Device) as a switch for switching ON/OFF of the heater section 5 .
FIG. 6 is a block diagram for explaining an electrical configuration example of the heater control unit 10A as the second embodiment.
In the second embodiment, the mechanical configuration of the vehicle lamp 1 is the same as that described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4, so redundant description will be avoided.
Also, in the following description, the same reference numerals are given to the same parts as those already explained, and the explanation thereof is omitted.

The heater control unit 10A differs from the heater control unit 10 in the first embodiment in that an IPD switch section 20 is provided instead of the switch SW and a negative protection circuit 30 is added. The IPD switch unit 20 is a switching device based on IPD.
In this embodiment, the overcurrent protection function of the IPD switch section 20 realizes electrostatic protection.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an example of an electrical schematic configuration of the IPD switch section 20, and shows the example of the schematic configuration of the IPD switch section 20 together with the negative protection circuit 30 shown in FIG.
First, as shown in FIG. 6, the IPD switch unit 20 has an input terminal ti to which the 15V drive voltage obtained by the first step-down circuit 11 is input, and the heater ON/OFF control unit 14 in the heater control unit 13. has a control terminal tc to which an ON/OFF control signal is input, an output terminal to to output a driving voltage to the heater section 5, and a negative terminal tm as a ground terminal.
7, the IPD switch section 20 controls the transistor 21 inserted between the input terminal ti and the output terminal to, the driver circuit 22 for the transistor 21, and the driver circuit 22 to control the transistor 21. , a current detection circuit 24 for detecting the current value of the output current from the transistor 21 to the heater section 5, and an active clamp circuit 25 for performing an active clamp operation on the transistor 21. are doing.

In this example, the transistor 21 is composed of, for example, an N-type MOSFET, and has a drain connected to the input terminal ti and a source connected to the output terminal to. When the transistor 21 is turned on, a 15V DC drive voltage is applied to the heater section 5, and when the transistor 21 is turned off, the application of the drive voltage is stopped.

The driver circuit 22 is configured as a gate driver for the transistor 21, which is a MOSFET in this example.

The active clamp circuit 25 is configured by inserting a series connection circuit of a Zener diode ZD and a diode Dd between the gate and drain of the transistor 21, and performs an active clamp operation for the transistor 21. As a result, it is possible to prevent the transistor 21 from being destroyed by the back electromotive force generated when the inductive load is driven.

The logic circuit 23 controls the driver circuit 22 based on the ON/OFF control signal supplied from the heater ON/OFF control unit 14 via the control terminal tc, thereby turning the transistor 21 ON/OFF according to the ON/OFF control signal. Switch OFF. For confirmation, the above ON/OFF control signal is a signal for instructing ON/OFF of the heater section 5 according to the ON condition and the OFF condition of the heater section 5 by the heater ON/OFF control section 14. .
The logic circuit 23 turns on the transistor 21 when the ON/OFF control signal instructs to turn on, and turns off the transistor 21 when instructing to turn off.

The logic circuit 23 also has an overcurrent protection function that controls the driver circuit 22 to forcibly turn off the transistor 21 when the current value detected by the current detection circuit 24 exceeds a predetermined threshold.
This overcurrent protection function prevents overcurrent caused by static electricity charged on the outer cover 3 from flowing into the power supply path to the heater section 5 . That is, the static electricity protection for the power supply path to the heater section 5 is realized.

A negative electrode side protection circuit 30 is connected to the negative electrode terminal tm of the IPD switch section 20 .
The negative protection circuit 30 is composed of a parallel connection circuit of a reverse current blocking diode D and a resistor R inserted between the negative terminal tm and the earth (ground).
The negative electrode protection circuit 30 prevents overcurrent from flowing into the IPD switch unit 20 from the negative electrode side due to static electricity charged on the outer cover 3 .

As described above, the vehicle lamp 1 as an embodiment has been described with specific examples, but the vehicle lamp of the present invention is not limited to the specific examples described above, and can be configured as various modified examples. It can be taken.
For example, as shown in FIG. 8, a heater control unit 10B that combines the capacitor C described in the first embodiment and the IPD switch section 20 described in the second embodiment as a configuration for static electricity protection can be considered. .

Further, in the description so far, an example has been given in which the heater portion 5 is composed of the heating wire 5a formed by applying a conductive paste to the outer cover 3. However, as illustrated in the perspective view of FIG. A film-like heater portion 5C can also be adopted.
The heater portion 5C is formed by wiring the heating wires 5a two-dimensionally in a predetermined pattern on a film-like material made of, for example, a resin material. In this case, the heating wire 5a may be arranged so as to be protected within the film, or may be arranged so as to be exposed on the surface of the film. By attaching such a film-like heater portion 5</b>C to the front or rear surface of the outer cover 3 , it is possible to melt snow or ice adhering to the outer cover 3 .

Even in the case of using the film-shaped heater portion 5C as described above, it is possible to increase the degree of adhesion of the heating wire 5a to the outer cover 3, as in the case of adopting the heating wire 5a made of conductive paste. It becomes possible to improve heat conduction efficiency. That is, it is possible to improve the efficiency of snow melting and ice melting.

The wiring pattern of the heating wire 5a is not limited to those exemplified so far. For example, if it is a two-dimensional wiring pattern, it is conceivable to adopt another wiring pattern such as a grid pattern. In addition, it is conceivable to employ a wiring pattern other than two-dimensional, such as three-dimensional, for example, without being limited to two-dimensional.

Further, the heating wire 5a is not limited to being formed by applying a conductive paste. In this case, the heater portion can be formed by using a conductive material other than the conductive paste as the heating wire 5a, such as attaching a wire-shaped conductive material to the film or embedding it in the film.

Also, in the above description, an example of application of the present invention to a rear combination lamp has been described, but the present invention is widely suitable for general vehicle lamps such as headlamps (vehicle headlamps) and daytime running lamps. can be applied to

In addition, in the description so far, the vehicle lamp having the LED as the light source of the lamp portion was exemplified, but the present invention can be applied to the light source of the lamp portion, for example, an incandescent lamp, a halogen lamp, a HID (High Intensity Discharge lamp), a laser, and the like. It can also be suitably applied to a case where a light source other than an LED, such as a light emitting element, is provided.

As described above, the vehicle lamp (same 1) as an embodiment includes a lamp body (same 2) having an opening (same 2a) and an outer cover (same 3) attached to the lamp body and covering the opening. , a heater portion (5, 5C) that is in contact with the outer cover and generates heat when power is supplied, and an electrostatic protection circuit (capacitor C, IPD switch portion 20) that protects the power supply path to the heater portion from static electricity. It is a thing.
The static electricity protection circuit prevents overcurrent caused by static electricity from flowing through electronic components connected to the heating wire of the heater section.
Therefore, it is possible to realize a highly reliable vehicular lamp that prevents destruction of electronic components caused by static electricity as a vehicular lamp having a function of melting snow and ice.

Further, in the vehicle lamp as the embodiment, the heating wire in the heater portion is formed by a two-dimensional wiring pattern.
As a result, the heat-generating portion of the heater portion spreads two-dimensionally, and the effect of melting snow and ice can be enhanced.
If the heating wire spreads two-dimensionally instead of one-dimensionally, static electricity generated on the outer cover tends to be more likely to be picked up.

Furthermore, in the vehicle lamp as an embodiment, the static electricity protection circuit is composed of a capacitor (same C) (see the first embodiment).
In this case, at least the capacitor can be the only additional component required for electrostatic protection.
Therefore, it is possible to reduce the number of parts and the cost for realizing a vehicle lamp that prevents destruction of electronic parts caused by static electricity.

Furthermore, in the vehicle lamp as an embodiment, ON/OFF of the heater section is performed by a switching device as an IPD, and an electrostatic protection circuit is provided in the switching device (IPD switch section 20) as an IPD. A current protection circuit (logic circuit 23) is used (see the second embodiment).
According to the above configuration, electrostatic protection is realized by the overcurrent protection function of the switching device as the IPD.
Therefore, it is possible to prevent breakage of the electronic parts connected to the heating wire of the heater section, especially the transistor used for turning ON/OFF the heater section.

Further, the vehicle lamp as an embodiment is provided with a negative electrode side protection circuit (30) that protects the IPD from overcurrent flowing from the negative electrode side.
As a result, it is possible to prevent overcurrent from being input from the negative electrode side due to static electricity.
Therefore, it is possible to enhance the effect of preventing destruction of electronic components caused by static electricity, and further improve the reliability of the vehicle lamp.

Furthermore, in the vehicle lamp as an embodiment, the light source is composed of LEDs.
When the light source is an LED, it is difficult to melt the snow or ice on the outer cover only by the heat generated by the light source. For this reason, it is preferable to provide a heater section to melt snow and ice, and it is preferable to provide static electricity protection due to the provision of the heater section.

Furthermore, in the vehicle lamp as an embodiment, the heating wire of the heater portion is formed by applying a paste-like conductive material to the outer cover.
This improves the degree of close contact between the heating wire and the outer cover. Since the degree of adhesion is high, the heating wire easily picks up the static electricity charged on the outer cover. Therefore, it is preferable to provide electrostatic protection.

Further, in the vehicle lamp as the embodiment, the heater portion is formed by wiring the heating wire 5a to the film material (see FIG. 9).
Even when the film-shaped heater portion is used, the degree of adhesion of the heating wire to the outer cover increases, so the heating wire easily picks up static electricity charged on the outer cover. Therefore, it is preferable to provide electrostatic protection.

1 vehicle lamp 2 lamp body 2a opening 2b lamp chamber 3 outer cover 4 lamp unit 4a

light sources

5, 5C heater portion

5a heating wires

10, 10A, 10B heater control unit 13 heater control portion 14 heater ON/OFF control portion 15 thermistor Monitoring unit 16 Thermistor SW Switch C Capacitor Tip Positive input terminal Tim Negative input terminal Ts Signal input terminal Top Positive output terminal Tom Negative output terminal Tt Temperature input terminal 20 IPD switch unit 21 Transistor 23 Logic circuit 24 Current detection circuit 30 Negative protection circuit ti input terminal to output terminal tc control terminal tm negative terminal

Claims

a lamp body having an opening;
an outer cover attached to the lamp body and covering the opening;
a heater unit that is in contact with the outer cover and generates heat when power is supplied;
and a static electricity protection circuit that protects a power supply path to the heater from static electricity.
The vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein the heating wire in the heater portion is formed by a two-dimensional wiring pattern.
3. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1, wherein the static electricity protection circuit is composed of a capacitor.
ON/OFF of the heater section is performed by a switching device as an IPD,
3. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1, wherein the static electricity protection circuit is an overcurrent protection circuit provided in a switching device as the IPD.
5. The vehicle lamp according to claim 4, further comprising a negative electrode side protection circuit that protects the IPD from overcurrent flowing from the negative electrode side.