METHOD, APPARATUS AND PROGRAM FOR PROCESSING A CONTRAST PICTURE IMAGE OF A SEMICONDUCTOR ELEMENT

A method for processing a contrast picture image of a semiconductor element. The method comprises; a color grade number reducing processing that automatically reduces number of color grades of the contrast picture image of the semiconductor element, obtained from a device for analysis, in keeping with the contrast of the contrast picture image; an interconnect contrast extraction processing that classifies pixels contained in the contrast picture image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, in accordance with a preset contrast threshold value as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern fractionated into a plurality of number of contrasts; and a shift processing that removes noise contained in a contour portion of the interconnect pattern by shifting the contour portion; whereby an interconnect pattern contained in the contrast image of the semiconductor element obtained from the device for analysis is fractionated into a plurality of preset contrasts to be extracted.