In recent years, composite materials have been widely used, especially in the field of aviation and have become the core technology of the world‘s powerful countries competing for development. As an excellent representative of composite materials, carbon fiber reinforced resin matrix composites have great potential for development due to the unique properties, but the interfacial bonding strength is the key bottleneck restricting the application. Plasma surface modification technology can improve the interface bonding strength between carbon fiber and resin. The research progress of domestic and foreign scholars was summarized, and the progress of plasma surface modification technology was expounded from two aspects of plasma treatment equipment development and process parameters influence. From the perspective of equipment development, three kinds of treatment devices in the research of carbon fiber surface treatment were introduced, including RF plasma treatment device, DBD plasma treatment device and sliding arc jet plasma treatment device and their advantages and disadvantages were analyzed. From the process parameters, the effects of different plasma types, plasma treatment time and plasma discharge power on the surface state of carbon fiber were mainly introduced. On this basis, the future development of plasma surface treatment technology of carbon fiber was prospected.