Silicon photonic waveguides, exhibiting high refractive index contrast and nano-scale optical field, are capable to producing compact and efficient nanophotonic devices. However, birefringence is inevitable for high refractive index contrast waveguides, and thus almost all nanophotonic devices are polarization sensitive. Polarizing beam splitter (PBS) is an important component to overcome the strong polarization dependence of silicon nanodevices in polarization diversity photonic integrated circuits, and has received much attention in recent years. The recently reported sophisticated subwavelength grating waveguide (SWG) based PBS has a working bandwidth of more than 200nm and an extinction ratio of more than 20dB. In this paper, the working principles of various types of PBSs are briefly deswoedcribed, and their performances in terms of size, extinction ratio and bandwidth are illustrated, and the advantages and disadvantages are also analyzed. Finally, the application scenarios and future development of PBS are summarized and prospected.