Compared with traditional Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavity semiconductor lasers, the edge-emitting semiconductor lasers with distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) gratings exhibit excellent characteristics in terms of narrow linewidth and stable output wavelength. They have huge application requirements in the fields of laser communication, optical interconnection and nonlinear frequency conversion. The DBR semiconductor laser can achieve laser narrow linewidth, dual wavelength output and wavelength tunability by properly designing the DBR grating and device structure. The DBR tapered semiconductor laser can simultaneously combine high power, narrow linewidth and high beam quality owing to the built-in DBR grating structure. In this paper, the structural design, fabrication process and performance advantages of these types of lasers are discussed, and the present situation of research and development at home and abroad are summarized. Based on this, the research work and development trend of DBR semiconductor lasers are further discussed and prospected.