Abstract: Beam-lead chips are held to a magnetic carrier and incident light reflected by the shiny beam leads is seen by a TV camera. The electronic image is normalized and insignificant reflections are ignored. An X-Y table moves the magnetic carrier to bring the next chip within the field of view of the camera. The table then moves the carrier in two dimensions while seeking the reflections of specific beam leads. The locations of the edges of the desired beam leads are noted, and the X-Y table quickly moves to its final position midway between the noted edges. A subtraction of the X and Y data results in a .theta. correction signal. The chip is then vacuum lifted from the magnetic carrier by a prior art bonding head. Meanwhile, a substrate has been similarly positioned using another TV camera. The bonding head moves the chip to the substrate and bonds the beam leads.