Upconversion (UC) luminescence photonic band gap materials Tb3+-Yb3+ co-doped phosphate inverse opal photonic crystals were prepared by a self-assembly technique in combination with a sol-gel method. The effect of photonic band gap on UC luminescence was investigated in inverse opals. Effective suppression of the UC luminescence was inspected if the photonic band gap overlapped with the emission band of Tb3+ ions.