Method of measuring alignment of a substrate with respect to a reference alignment mark

A lithographic projection apparatus, comprising:

• an illumination system configured to provide a beam of radiation;
• a support configured to support a patterning device, the patterning device being configured to pattern the beam of radiation, and the patterning device being provided with a reference alignment mark having a first period;
• a substrate table configured to hold a substrate, the substrate being provided with a substrate reference alignment mark having a second period and a substrate fine alignment mark having a third period, the second period being smaller than the first period and being smaller than the third period, the substrate being at least partially coated with a resist layer, the resist layer being provided with an additional alignment mark having a fourth period equal to the third period;
• a projection system configured to project the patterned beam of radiation onto a target portion of the substrate;
• and
• an alignment measuring system configured to measure alignment of the substrate with respect to the patterning device, the alignment measuring system being configured to:
• align the substrate reference alignment mark with the reference alignment mark using a coarse alignment measuring method;
• measure the alignment of the substrate fine alignment mark with respect to the additional alignment mark by illuminating the substrate fine alignment mark and the additional mark;
• image a resulting interference pattern on the reference alignment mark;
• and use a measuring signal of the measurement to correct a signal obtained with the coarse alignment method, wherein the interference pattern is imaged via an optical filter, the optical filter being configured to select diffraction orders of the radiation from the illuminated marks.