ECR plasmas are utilized for : 1) Charge breeding of 1+ RIB into N+ RIB in continuous regime with an efficiency for one given charge of 10&percent; for noble gases and about 5&percent; for solid elements. 2) Charge breeding with beam bunching (bunch duration 20 ms, 5 Hz) was obtained forRb15+ions with an efficiency of 2.2&percent;. These results are very reproducible and need only about 200 W of RF power. The number of ions contained in one bunch exceeds 1000 times those achieved with EBIS systems. The ECR trap is better suited for pulsed post acceleration. 3) Ion accumulation in the ECR plasma trap may become a method for realizing a radioactive target. ©1999 American Institute of Physics.