Method of aligning a semiconductor substrate with a semiconductor alignment apparatus

A method of defining the relative locations of chips on a semiconductor substrate for use in aligning the chips with semiconductor processing or test equipment, comprising:

• mounting the semiconductor substrate on a stage of a semiconductor alignment apparatus;
• performing a chip alignment comprising obtaining reference coordinates of the central chip on the substrate, and determining whether the substrate is acceptably centered on the stage on the basis of the reference coordinates;
• subsequently performing a semiconductor substrate alignment in which data of the relative state of alignment between the substrate and the alignment apparatus is produced, said semiconductor substrate alignment comprising
• locating at least two templates in the central chip with a checker of the semiconductor alignment apparatus, each of the templates comprising a pattern discernible by an imaging device of the checker, capturing the images of the at least two templates with the imaging device, and storing the images and reference coordinates of the at least two templates, and
• deriving coordinates of the chips relative to the semiconductor alignment apparatus.