Abstract: With the development of micro/nano-satellite platform including Cubesat platform,the application of Vacuum Arc Thruster(VAT) as the micro-propulsion system of attitude control and orbital maneuver gains attention of researchers,and a lot of study on theoretical design of VAT were carried out.This paper aimed at Co-axial VAT and reviewed on the design theory and calculation method abroad around co-axial VAT design.A semi-empirical performance model was introduced and the relationship between design parameters and working performance was also analyzed,which would serve the initial parameters selection and working performance calculation of co-axial VAT in first step design.