Method of manufacturing wafer

A method of manufacturing a wafer from an ingot having a first surface and a second surface that is opposite the first surface, comprising:

• an entire plane processing step of repeating
• a separation initiating point forming step of, while positioning a focused spot of a laser beam whose wavelength is transmittable through a material of the ingot within the ingot from the first surface side, moving the focused spot and the ingot relatively to each other along a predetermined processing feed direction, thereby forming in the ingot separation initiating points including modified layers in a plane parallel to the first surface and cracks developed from the modified layers, and
• an indexing feed step of indexing-feeding the focused spot of the laser beam relatively to the ingot in a direction perpendicular to the processing feed direction;
• and
• a separating step of separating a wafer from the ingot along the separation initiating points, after the entire plane processing step has been carried out,
• wherein the separation initiating point forming step includes forming a plurality of focused spots of the laser beam that are spaced thicknesswise of the ingot from each other in the ingot by a distance corresponding to a thickness of the wafer to be separated from the ingot, thereby simultaneously forming a plurality of layers of separation initiating points at respective different depths in the ingot in the entire plane processing step.