THIS STUDY IS CENTERED AROUND FILM THICKNESS MEASUREMENT ON UNPATTERNED WAFERS. A METHOD OF COLOR CLUSTERING ANALYSIS USED IN WAFER IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IS DEMONSTRATED. COLOR HISTOGRAM STRETCHING AND CLUSTERING ALGORITHMS ALLOWED THE WAFER IMAGE TO BE REPRESENTED AS A CONTOUR MAP WITH HIGH-CONTRASTING REGIONS. USING THESE HIGHER CONTRAST COLORS, THIS TECHNIQUE ALLOWS THE IMAGE TO BE REGIONALLY SEGMENTED. THE USE OF SEGMENTATION AVOIDS THE COMPLEXITY OF EDGE DETECTION BY PROCESSING THE DIFFERENT COLOR REGIONS INSTEAD OF THE DISCONTINUITIES BETWEEN THE REGIONS. THE SEGMENTATION WAS INFLUENCED BY THE RESOLUTION VALUE SELECTED IN THE CLUSTERING ALGORITHM. THE IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM USED IN THE PROJECT CONSISTED OF AN IBM PC-AT WITH A TARGA GRAPHICS BOARD, A JAVELIN COLOR VIDEO CAMERA, A GRAPHICS MONITOR, AND A MICROSCOPE WITH A CONTROLLED LIGHTING SYSTEM. THE TARGA GRAPHICS BOARD WAS USED TO