It depends where you draw the line. Many "pro" level cameras use full-frame sensors, which are about twice as big in area as the APS-C sensors common in lower (including mid-range) dSLRs. This gives an advantage, because surface area is the best way to get more light, and more light is never bad. So, more expensive cameras will have an image quality advantage there. (With the corresponding tradeoff in size and cost as well.)

But, the basic technology is the same. These days, sensors are usually CMOS — the other leading option is CCD. These have various trade-offs, but both can produce great images.

Even when you get down to point & shoot cameras, we're still really in the same ballpark — CMOS and CCD, almost all using the same Bayer pixel layout. The main difference is that those cameras use very small sensors, so the technology is focused on enabling that. Pixel density is higher (which is generally bad). There are some sensor tricks like backlit CMOS which only show up in these small sensors — probably because the quality gain isn't worth the cost on a larger scale. As those technologies mature, they may be available on bigger sensors too — or maybe not.

The vibrant, sharp colors you've seen from pro cameras are probably mostly because someone put a lot of time into making those images look good (both in the field and in post-production.)