As a new wireless communication technology combined illumination with communication,visible light communication has become attractive recently.Optical antenna plays a significant role in visible light communication system for it can optimize the light intensity distribution,enhance the received optical power,and improve the signal to noise ratio of the system.Research on optical antenna is mainly focused on the transmitting antenna or the receiving antenna.Transmitting antenna is usually combined with LED optical design,which can be divided into collimation type,uniform illumination type,and focus type according to the light intensity distribution.Receiving antenna uses composite parabolic concentrator (CPC),Fresnel lens or other optical components as the optical receiving front end to enhance the received optical power.In this paper,the research of optical antenna at home and abroad is introduced.The optical performance of the optical antenna is evaluated and compared,and finally the development trend of the optical antenna is forecasted.