Recognition manner of the minute work piece and the pickup null which uses

摘要

Based on the result of image recognition of the first wafer, the scan area of image recognition in the second and later wafers is determined. For example, in an appearance inspection process of semiconductor pellets, the first wafer is scanned over for image recognition to determine a contour (hereinafter referred to as the polygon) of a set constituted by pellets excluding non-shaped pellets as the scan area for the second and later wafers. This allows for reducing the scan area for the second and later wafers, thereby eliminating unnecessary areas to scan and saving time and costs required for the work.