Abstract: Several technologies for ion beam surface modification of materials and its tribological application were reviewed in this paper. The future development tendency of this technology in tribology area has been proposed. A large number of investigations indicated that ion implantation technique is a useful method to modify the tribological property of materials. A recent development is. the ion assisted coating (IAC) or ion assisted deposition (IAD) techniques, which include: ion beam enhanced deposition (IBED) or ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD), ion beam mixing (IBM) and ion recoil implantation (IRI) . Ion assisted coatings can be produced in thickness ranging from 0.05 to several microns. Ion assisted coatings adhere strongly to the substrate due to an intermixed interface and are often denser than PVD and CVD coatings. The future development of ion beam technology appears to lie in two related areast direct ion implantation and ion assisted coating. It is expected that the tribological applications for ion beam technology will be considerably widened by ion assisted coating process.