Abstract: This paper briefly analyzes the characteristics of various types of pressure sensor and proposes a new type of pressure sensor, i.e. a vacuum microelectronic pressure sensor with the emission tips distributed on a stepped cathode instead of a conventional flat cathode. The authors have calculated and compared the emission current of the novel stepped cathode and the conventional flat cathode. The calculation results indicate that the new sensor has the advantages of higher sensitivities and larger measurement range than the conventional vacuum microelectronic pressure sensor with the emission tips distributed on a flat cathode, The fabrication of the stepped cathode emission array have also been described.