Method of producing alignment marks

Alignment marks (overlay marks or alignment markers) are produced in a semiconductor structure with integrated circuits. Contact holes and alignment trenches are etched into an insulator layer and in each case open out at a first metal layer at their undersides. Metal is deposited into the alignment trenches and the contact holes. With a subsequent chemical mechanical polishing procedure, the metal areas are lowered in the region of the alignment trenches and form profiles for the alignment marks in a second metal layer, which is deposited on the insulator layer.