Wire bonding inspecting apparatus utilizing a controlling means for shifting from one inspected area to another

Claim 1

A wire bonding inspecting apparatus for inspecting wires bonded between a semiconductor chip and associated leads, comprising: (a) mounting means for mounting the semiconductor chip wire-bonded to the leads; (b) illuminating means for illuminating the wires connected between the mounted semiconductor chip and the leads; (c) optical image pickup means for picking up an optical image of the illuminated wires in a predetermined area; (d) video signal generating means for transducing the optical image into video signals; (e) recognizing and measuring means responsive to the video signals, for recognizing wire shapes and measuring wire bonded positions for wire inspection; (f) storing means for storing wire inspection criteria; (g) acceptance deciding means for comparing the recognized wire shapes and the measured wire bonded positions with wire inspection criteria stored in the storing means, respectively, and generating an acceptance or a nonacceptance signal on the basis of the compared results; (h) moving means for moving said mounting means relative to said optical image pickup means, or vice versa; and (i) control means for controlling the relative positional relationship between said mounting means and said optical image pickup means to shift from an inspection area to another inspection area when said predetermined inspection area is insufficient compared to whole chip area.