As a complete form of brake-by-wire system, electro-mechanical brake (EMB) system has many advantages such as simplified structure and rapid braking response. To give a comprehensive review on the development status of EMB structure, the development and industrialization of various structure schemes are summarized based on investigation of a large number of patents in this paper. And four basic structure schemes including the ball-screw-type, wedge-type, ball-ramp-type and cam-type scheme are analyzed and compared. For the clamping force control problem of the actuator with nonlinear characteristics and slow time-varying parameter perturbations, firstly a review on the actuator modeling methods is conducted in this paper. Then through the classification based on the presence or absence of pressure sensors, the research progress both home and abroad is reviewed from two aspects: clamping force control methods based on the feedback force value and control methods based on the estimated force value. Finally, future development trends of the actuator structure design, clamping force control and vehicle coordination redundancy control are prospected.