Laser processing apparatus

A laser processing apparatus comprising:

• a chuck table having a holding surface that holds a workpiece and is defined by an X-axis direction and a Y-axis direction;
• and
• a laser beam irradiation unit that irradiates the workpiece held by the chuck table with a laser beam, wherein
• the laser beam irradiation unit includes
• a laser oscillator that emits the laser beam,
• an X-axis galvano scanner that induces the laser beam emitted by the laser oscillator in the X-axis direction,
• a Y-axis galvano scanner that induces the laser beam emitted by the laser oscillator in the Y-axis direction, and
• a controller that controls the X-axis galvano scanner and the Y-axis galvano scanner,
• the controller includes
• a processing region storing section that stores an X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of processing regions in which the workpiece held by the chuck table is processed, and
• an order-of-processing storing section that stores setting of order of processing of the processing region to be processed on a forward path through irradiation with the laser beam and the processing region of a return path to be subsequently processed, and,
• in the setting of the order of processing, a Y-coordinate of the return path is set in such a manner that a load generated in the X-axis galvano scanner that converts a movement direction of the laser beam is alleviated when processing is executed on the forward path in the X-axis direction by using the X-axis galvano scanner and subsequently processing is executed on the return path in the X-axis direction.