Patent ID: 8762099

Claim:
A measurement method of measuring a target divided into N partial regions, where “N” is an integer of at least 2, to measure a whole shape of the target by stitching the N partial regions, with a measuring apparatus having a controller, the measurement method comprising: a partial region measurement step of measuring the N partial regions so that each of the N partial regions includes an overlapped region with at least one of the other (N-1) partial regions; a setting step of setting, as a reference region, one partial region among the N partial regions; a reference determination step of determining an error caused by a position variability in measuring the reference region; an error calculation step of calculating errors, using a controller, caused by the position variability in measuring (N−1) partial regions other than the reference region, and error caused by a measurement apparatus common to the N partial regions; a stitching step of performing a correction depending on each error calculated by the error calculation step, and of stitching the N partial regions to obtain the one whole shape of the target; wherein the reference determination step, the error calculation step, and the stitching step are repeatedly performed while setting, as the reference region, M partial regions among the N partial regions one by one to obtain M whole shapes of the target M times by changing the i, where “M” is an integer between 2 and N; and a whole shape measurement step of obtaining a measured value of the whole shape of the target based on the M whole shapes of the target.