Abstract: A method for recognizing a pattern of an alignment mark on a wafer includes positioning the wafer on an adjustable wafer stage in an alignment apparatus; capturing images of a key alignment mark by magnifying an alignment mark region of the wafer; deleting image data from a region where the alignment pattern does not exist between the captured images; and extracting an alignment mark pattern by a pattern recognition of the remaining image data after the deletion of the image data. Thus, an alignment failure can be reduced because a particle on the wafer is not mistaken as an alignment mark.