Since the discovery of X-rays by Rntgen in 1895, radiation detection technology have developed rapidly and have been widely used in many fields such as medical imaging, security inspection, industrial non-destructive testing, nuclear safety monitoring, resource exploration, basic science and space science. In terms of detection materials and working principles, radiation detectors can be divided into gas detectors, scintillator detectors and semiconductor detectors. This article focuses on semiconductor detectors, starting from the interaction between various radiation and semiconductor materials, as well as the working principle and signal processing process of semiconductor detectors, and discusses the performance requirements and main points of detector design of semiconductor radiation detectors in different types of radiation and different application requirements. The performance and research progress of semiconductor materials in the field of radiation detection are reviewed according to the order of element family.