Patent ID: 7329079

Claim:
A semiconductor wafer processing machine comprising a cassette-placing mechanism having a cassette-placing table for placing a cassette storing a semiconductor wafer, and an aligning mechanism for aligning a position of the crystal orientation of the semiconductor wafer, which is situated below the cassette-placing table and in contact with an outer peripheral wall of the semiconductor wafer, a workpiece take-in/take-out mechanism for taking out the semiconductor wafer stored in the cassette placed on the cassette-placing table and taking the semiconductor wafer into the cassette, a workpiece conveying mechanism for conveying the semiconductor wafer taken out by the workpiece take-in/take-out mechanism, a chuck table mechanism having a chuck table for holding the semiconductor wafer conveyed by the workpiece conveying mechanism, and a processing mechanism for processing the semiconductor wafer held on the chuck table, wherein the cassette-placing mechanism has a lifting means for bringing the cassette placed on the cassette-placing table to a first take-in/take-out position where the cassette is positioned in the take-in/take-out mechanism, and for bringing the aliging mechanism to a second take-in/take-out position where the aligning mechanism is positioned in the take-in/take-out area of the workpiece take-in/take-out mechanism, said aligning mechanism comprises a center table for placing the semiconductor wafer, a semiconductor wafer crystal orientation detection means for detecting a mark indicative of the crystal orientation formed on the outer peripheral wall of the semiconductor wafer placed on the center table, and a turning means for turning the center table, and a centering member has a plurality of arc faces which become concentric to the center table.