The semiconductor industry has grown more than 3.7 percent last year, according to a study by the International Data Corporation (IDC (News - Alert)).

The growth comes despite all of the economic turmoil in Europe, the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, China's slowing growth and floods in Thailand.

IDC's Worldwide Semiconductor Applications Forecaster (SAF) tracks more than 100 semiconductor manufacturers across the globe. Despite worldwide problems over the past year, over 40 of those companies grew by 5 percent or greater during 2011. About the same number, however, experienced declines by 5 percent or more.

Applications such as smartphones, tablets, e-readers, laptops, servers and network infrastructure all drove growth in the semiconductor industry.

Intel (News - Alert) was the market leader, with revenues of $51.8 billion last year, as well as increasing the semiconductor market share by 3 percent. Intel was followed by Samsung with revenues of $29 billion.

Other market leaders were Texas Instruments, Toshiba (News - Alert) and Renesas Electronics. The next top 5 companies were Qualcomm, Hynix, STMicro, Micron and Broadcom. The top 10 companies accounted for 53 percent of semiconductor sales last year, growing by 3 percent over the last year. The top 25 percent of manufacturers controlled 75 percent of the total semiconductor market.

Apple (News - Alert), however, grew by 140 percent over the last year, largely due to its renowned mobile devices. Qualcomm, ON Semiconductor, Intel, and Renesas Electronics also experienced strong growth in 2011.

Smaller manufacturers who grew substantially include Spredtrum Communications, CoreLogic, Microsemi, Sequans, Icera (News - Alert), MegaChips, Nichia Chemical, Osram, RobertBosch, Skyworks and Cavium.

Much of the growth came from high demand for Intel's chips. Revenues for NAND chips used in flash memory also increased, while DRAM revenues shrank. Elpida Memory, a manufacturer of DRAM chips, saw revenues decline by 40 percent and declared bankruptcy last year.

The Asia/Pacific markets and the Americas grew above average, while Japan and Europe experienced negative growth. Due to the fall of DRAM prices, the computing segment declined, and the consumer segment was flat. The wireless communication and automotive segments both grew by 10 percent.

“There is a trend underway toward more integration, as companies try to position themselves for the next phase of growth and as device applications become more and more intelligent and move toward high-level operating systems, connectivity and application processing capabilities,” said Mali Venkatesan, research manager, semiconductors, at IDC. “In addition, as large companies with strong cash balances vie for competitive positions, mergers and acquisitions will be a key theme.”

The current cycle will bottom out in the second quarter of 2012 and that the industry will grow to around 5 to 7 percent this year, according to Venkatesan. The next update to the SAF forecast will be in July.