Three dimensional super-resolution gated imaging(3D SRGI) is a novel scannerless 3D imaging technique, and has great potential in underwater imaging, remote surveillance and automatic navigation. The development of 3D SRGI was reviewed, and trapezoidal 3D SRGI and triangular 3D SRGI was compared from intensity states of range intensity profiles, 3D imaging step depth, signal-to-noise ratio, environmental noise sensitivity, range resolution, and range accuracy. For the improvement of 3D SRGI, advanced imaging methods were introduced including range-intensity coding imaging, real time 3D imaging and multi-pulse time delay integration imaging. Furthermore, the specific applications of 3D SRGI were summarized in low contrast target detection, target identification, and underwater 3D imaging. In addition, an overview on some recent 3D SRGI work was given in the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The future development trends of three dimensional range-gated imaging are higher depth-to-range-resolution ratio and faster high-resolution 3D imaging.