To eliminate the possibility of measurement error and substrate damage caused by manual measuring system.

While a semiconductor substrate 24 is held in a vacuum environment of a semiconductor processing unit 14, the sheet resistivity of an electric conductive film on the substrate 24 is measured. The conductive film is piled up on the substrate 24 within a vacuum chamber and a resistance probe 36 is placed in the same chamber. The probe 36 is withdrawn from a passage while the substrate is piled up, and after piling is stopped and completed, the probe 24 is moved toward the substrate 24 so as to measure the resistance of the film.