Microsystem technology integrates the functions of information acquisition, processing, exchange, execution and power supply, which has been widely used in the terminal of the Internet of Things(IoT). Many IoT terminals" battery endurance limits its application ability in various scenarios. Passive wake-up technology is a kind of energy management strategy, which is applied in the microsystem of IoT terminals, and can realize the automatic switch between low-power sleep state and wake working state. In this paper, the passive wake-up technology of microsystems is reviewed and summarized. According to the different power consumption characteristics of microsystems during sleep state, the passive wake-up technology is divided into four categories. The main application scenarios of microsystem passive wake-up technology are introduced. The scenarios usually have the characteristics of small proportion of effective working time, wide distribution range and large number of deployments. Finally, the future development and challenges of microsystem passive wake-up technology are discussed. In the future construction of the IoT, passive wake-up technology will further play an important role.