When the peak power density of a short or ultrashort pulse laser exceeds the ionization threshold of the solid target or liquid medium, a plasma will be formed on the surface of the target or inside the medium, leading to the remove of the workpiece by the interaction between the plasma and the workpiece, which is called laser induced plasma micromachining(LIPMM). This processing technology is characterized by high absorption of laser energy, low damage, high efficiency and wide application, which has been widely used in the field of micromachining. The machining principle of LIPMM was firstly introduced in this paper, and the new techniques and applications of LIPMM in solid target and liquid medium were then mainly elaborated. The challenges and future trends of the development of LIPMM were finally summarized and prospected.