Abstract: Super hydrophobic metal surface with corrosion resistance, anti-frost, self-cleaning, sliding drag reduction and other excellent performance. According to different application fields, the metal substrate involved is mainly copper, zinc, aluminum, stainless steel, alloy, etc. Compared with other super-hydrophobic metal surface preparation methods, etch method can construct surface roughness structure more directly and effectively and is widely used. The commonly used etching methods include laser etching, plasma etching and chemical etching. Firstly, the mechanism of these three etching methods is briefly introduced, and the research status of super-hydrophobic surface preparation on different metal substrates by etching methods is reviewed. Finally, some Suggestions are put forward in view of the existing problems, hoping to provide a certain reference basis for further research.