A functionally graded material (FGM) spacer, which the distribution of dielectric permittivity inside an insulator changes spatially, can considerably reduce the electric field concentration around a high-voltage electrode and along the gas-insulator interface when compared to a conventional spacer with a uniform permittivity distribution, In this research, we propose the FGM spacer with an elliptical permittivity distribution instead of that with a distribution of dielectric permittivity varying along a radial direction only in order to improve efficiently the insulation capability. The optimal design of the elliptical FGM spacer configuration is performed by using the response surface methodology (RSM) combined with the steepest descent method (SDM).