Infrared detection technology has important applications in laser ranging, imaging, remote sensing, night vision and other fields. It is the focus of research to reduce the size, weight, power consumption and cost of infrared photodetectors, and to improve the performance of the detectors. This article summarizes the development history, working principle and researche status of infrared detector technology, and prospects its future direction. The content mainly covers photonic infrared photodetectors and their arrays based on mercury cadmium telluride, type II superlattices, quantum wells, quantum dots, silicon-based germanium tin and other materials. The cost reduction of infrared systems ultimately depends on the consumption under normal temperature conditions. Whether the pixel density of the current limit detector array matches the background limit and diffraction limit performance of the optical elements of the system, materials such as HgCdTe, type II superlattices and colloidal quantum dots are selected to improve the room temperature performance of the photon detector. Various infrared detectors have their own characteristics in terms of performance and complement each other in practical applications.