The performance of indirect X-ray detector (IXD) has been improved with the gradual improvement of imaging requirements in medical diagnosis, industrial non-destructive testing, safety monitoring, and scientific research, which promotes the further development of low radiation dose, high resolution, and fast real-time X-ray imaging detection technology. As the core devices of IXD, scintillation screen and image sensor have developed rapidly with the progress of scintillator materials, semiconductor manufacturing process, and integrated circuit technology. In order to realize the effective transmission of image between scintillation screen and image sensor, three coupling modes are usually adopted: fiber coupling, optical lens coupling, and direct coupling. This paper mainly introduces the research progress of scintillation screen and image sensor, as well as the structure and characteristics of the three coupling modes, and prospects the future development trend of IXD.