The invention discloses heterodyne technology based device and method for testing the half-wave voltage of a phase modulator. The device comprises a laser, a first 50-percent coupler, a phase modulator, an acousto-optic frequency shifter, a second 50-percent coupler, a photoelectric detector, a vector analyzer, a first signal generator and a second signal generator; the laser is sequentially connected with the first 50-percent coupler, the phase modulator, the second 50-percent coupler, the photoelectric detector and the vector analyzer, the first 50-percent coupler is sequentially connected with the acousto-optic frequency shifter and the second 50-percent coupler, the phase modulator is connected with the first signal generator, and the acousto-optic frequency shifter is connected with the second signal generator. The invention provides the method for accurately testing the half-wave voltage of the phase modulator, the carrier component in phase modulation can be effectively inhabited by utilizing the half-wave voltage obtained through testing, the back-scattered noise in a resonance type optical gyroscope is reduced, the invention provides a feasible method for improving the precision of the resonance type optical gyroscope and has important scientific meanings and application value.