Patent ID: 7588150

Claim:
A cushioned wafer container comprising: a plurality of mutually superimposed wafer trays each for retaining a semiconductor wafer; and an elastic wafer-retaining cushion sheet attached to a top of each of said wafer trays to place said semiconductor wafer thereon; wherein said semiconductor wafer placed on a surface of said wafer-retaining cushion sheet is accommodated in an interior space formed between each of said wafer trays and another of said wafer trays that is adjacently superimposed thereover; said wafer container further comprising: a wafer suction-adhering surface formed on the surface of said wafer-retaining cushion sheet, said wafer suction-adhering surface adhering by suction to said semiconductor wafer; said wafer trays each being provided with a plurality of bottom openings opening to a reverse side of said wafer-retaining cushion sheet, an air chamber communicating with said bottom openings, and an air inlet for supplying pressurized air into said air chamber from an outside; wherein when pressurized air is supplied into said air chamber through said air inlet to increase air pressure in said air chamber, said wafer-retaining cushion sheet is elastically deformed into an upwardly inflated form at regions facing said bottom openings, thus causing separation between said semiconductor wafer and at least a part of the wafer suction-adhering surface of said wafer-retaining cushion sheet.