Patent ID: 7760931

Claim:
An, apparatus for measuring at least one of arrangement and shape of shots formed on a substrate, the apparatus comprising: a scope configured to obtain an image of an alignment mark formed on the substrate and corresponding to a shot; and a calculating device configured to obtain a position of the alignment mark on the substrate based on the obtained image to calculate a difference between the obtained position and a designed position of the alignment mark on the substrate, obtain a non-linear component of the calculated difference of each of a plurality of the shot with respect to each of a plurality of conditions, calculate an index indicating a stability of the non-linear component of each of the plurality of the shot with respect to each of the plurality of conditions, based on a first variation of a plurality of the non-linear component respectively obtained for the plurality of the shot on a plurality of substrates, and an average, over a plurality of different shot numbers, of second variations of a plurality of the non-linear component respectively obtained for a plurality of the shot having identical shot numbers on the plurality of substrates and select, from the plurality of conditions, a condition for obtaining the non-linear component based on the calculated indices.