While semiconductor sales for 2016 saw a slight increase of 1.1 percent rise compared to the 2015 total, 2015 was good too.

The global semiconductor industry posted sales of $31 billion in December 2016, flat on month but 12.3 percent higher than year-ago levels. Sales for the fourth quarter of 2016 came were $93 billion, rising 12.3 percent on the year and 5.4 percent on quarter, the Association wrote.

Association president and CEO John Neuffer said that 2016 began poorly but the global semiconductor market picked up steam mid-year and never looked back reaching nearly $340 billion in sales.

"Market growth was driven by macroeconomic factors, industry trends, and the ever-increasing amount of semiconductor technology in devices the world depends on for working, communicating, manufacturing, treating illness, and countless other applications. We expect modest growth to continue in 2017 and beyond," he said.

Logic was the largest semiconductor category by sales with $91.5 billion or 27 percent of the total semiconductor market. Memory chips made $76.8 billion and micro-ICs $60.6 billion.

Sensors and actuators was the fastest growing segment, increasing by 22.7 percent. Other product segments that posted increased sales in 2016 include NAND flash memory, which reached $32 billion in sales or a 11 pe cent annual increase.

Digital signal processors sold 2.9 billion or a 12.5 percent, diodes sold $2.5 billion or an 8.7 percent increase. Small signal transistors sold $1.9 billion or a 7.3 percent while analogue chips sold $47.8 billion or a 5.8 percent increase.