Bipolar transistors are so named because they conduct by using both majority and minority carriers. The bipolar junction transistor, the first type of transistor to be mass-produced, is a combination of two junction diodes, and is formed of either a thin layer of p-type semiconductor sandwiched between two n-type semiconductors (an npn transistor), or a thin layer of n-type semiconductor sandwiched between two p-type semiconductors (a pnp transistor). This construction produces two pn junctions: a baseemitter junction and a basecollector junction, separated by a thin region of semiconductor known as the base region (two junction diodes wired together without sharing an intervening semiconducting region will not make a transistor).
Try to answer this question if possible (otherwise reply "unanswerable"): What is the name for a layer of n-type semiconductor set between two p-type semiconductors?
pnp transistor