Patent ID: 8453842

Claim:
A semiconductor wafer container comprising: a container body having an opening for loading and unloading a plurality of semiconductor wafers; a cover externally removably attached to the opening to close the opening; wafer retaining grooves provided in mutually opposing pairs on inner surfaces of side walls of the container body at opposite ends of the opening to retain the plurality of semiconductor wafers individually and independently in the container body, the wafer retaining grooves having wafer movement restraining portions restraining movement of the semiconductor wafers retained by the wafer retaining grooves so that outer edges of the semiconductor wafers will not reach an innermost wall of the container body that is located opposite the opening; and a front retainer disposed at a back side of the cover to elastically press the semiconductor wafers retained by the wafer retaining grooves toward the innermost wall from a side of the container body closer to the opening; the semiconductor wafer container further comprising: wafer protecting grooves provided on the innermost wall of the container body, the wafer protecting grooves having a cross-sectional configuration in a shape of undulations having bottoms, which are most distant from the opening, at respective positions facing the outer edges of the semiconductor wafers retained by the wafer retaining grooves, and having an opening width wider than a thickness of each of the semiconductor wafers, the wafer protecting grooves being configured so that, in a normal state where a strong force does not shake the semiconductor wafers, an imaginary line connecting together tops of the undulations is inward of the bottoms of the undulations toward the center of the container and outward of the wafer edges away from the center of the container forming a space between the imaginary line and the outer edges of the wafer.