Thermal barrier coating (TBC) is used to protect substrates and extend the operating life of gas turbines in power plant and aeronautical applications. The major causes of failure of such coatings is spallation, which results from thermal stress due to a thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between the top coating and the bond coating layers. In this paper, the effects of the material properties and the thickness of the top coating layer on thermal stresses were evaluated using the finite element method and the equation for the thermal expansion coefficient mismatch stress. In addition, we investigated a design technique for the top coating whereby thermal resistance is exploited.