In a driver circuit constructing a switching power supply device that
switches power transistors passing a current through a coil by a PWM
mode, a current detection transistor, which is smaller in size than the
low-potential side power transistor and a current detection resistor are
provided in parallel to the low-potential side power transistor. The same
control voltage as the power transistor is applied to the control
terminal of the current detection transistor. An operational amplifier is
formed, that has the potential of the connection node between the current
detection transistor and the current detection resistor applied to its
inverse input terminal and a feedback loop, so as to make a pair of input
terminals of the operational amplifier be at the same potential. A signal
produced by the current detection resistor is thus outputted as a current
detection signal.