Abstract: Yttrium oxide stabilized zirconia thermal barrier coatings (YSZ TBCs) have excellent comprehensive performance, which are the most widely used thermal barrier coatings in the current aerospace field.The traditional YSZ TBCs are difficult to serve for a long time above 1200 ℃, so it is necessary to take measures to further improve their performance.The development history of YSZ TBCs was briefly introduced, and the ways to improve the performance of YSZ TBCs were reviewed from the aspects of doping modification, structural optimization and process optimization.Finally, the future development direction was prospected according to the research status of YSZ TBCs.