A polystyrene (CH)/resorcinol formaldehyde (RF)/CH tri-layer perturbation target for hydrodynamic instability experiments in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) was designed and fabricated and its features were discussed. The target was composed of a perturbed CH layer, a RF aerogel sheet and an unperturbed CH layer. The detailed fabrication method consisted of four steps. An aluminum alloy template with sinusoidal perturbation patterns was prepared by the single-point diamond turning technology; the CH layer was prepared via a simple method which called dip-coating method; the RF aerogel sheet was prepared by sol–gel and supercritical drying process; finally, a CH layer, the RF aerogel sheet and another CH layer were put on the perturbed aluminum alloy template and hot-pressed at 150 ℃ for 2 h to make these three layers adhered together without the use of adhesive and to transfer the perturbation patterns from the template to the CH layer. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to investigate the microstructure of the RF aerogel sheet. Parameters of the target, such as perturbation wavelength (T) and perturbation amplitude (A), were characterized by QC-5000 tool microscope and alpha-step 500 surface profiler. The results showed that T and A of the target were about 55 and 3.88 lm respectively, the perturbation patterns transferred from the alloy template to the CH layer precisely. Thickness of the perturbed CH layer (H1), RF aerogel sheet (H2) and unperturbed CH layer (H3) and cross-section of the tri-layer target were characterized by QC-5000 tool microscope and SEM. H1, H2 and H3 were about 50, 300 and 20 lm respectively, the cross-sectional photographs of the target showed that the CH layer and the RF aerogel sheet adhered perfectly with each other. As this CH/RF/CH tri-layer target use the RF aerogel to simulate the DT ice of the ignition target capsule, the whole target very close to the actual ignition target capsule.