OCOTILLO, AZ – Defining environmental research priorities to plan for a sustainable future is the focus of an upcoming iNEMI-sponsored conference here.

CINCINNATI – Buoyed by a strong 2010, Seho Systems is adding staff to its North American headquarters here.

SANTA CLARA, CA – Momentum behind tablet (slate) PC shipments is growing, with a year-over-year increase of nearly 200% to 55.7 million units expected in 2011, according to DisplaySearch.

Though growth rates will slow during the forecast period, the slate PC share of the overall mobile PC market, which also includes notebooks and mini-notes, will rise to nearly 35%, or 172.4 million units, by 2014, says the firm. Total shipments of the mobile PC market are expected to reach 503.8 million units by 2014.

DisplaySearch expects 7" wide, 10" standard, and 10" wide to be the dominant screen sizes used by new products in the coming years.

Mobile PC shipment growth is expected to be in the double-digit range throughout the forecast period, peaking in 2011, at 30.4% year-over-year, and gradually declining to 17.7% growth in 2014.

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ – Alpha said it has established a licensing agreement with Alcatel Lucent to complete Alpha’s suite of global sublicenses required to offer SnBiAg low-temperature solder paste. 

Alpha has engineered CVP-520 SnBiAg Pb-free solder paste based on IP and will continue to use SnBiAg alloy in the development of other soldering products. 

Alpha’s SnBiAg products will enable the use of a low-temperature second-side reflow process that can eliminate wave soldering of many multi-technology electronic assemblies that still require wave-soldered joints. 

JASPER, IN -- Top 20 EMS firm Kimball International today reported net sales in its contract assembly operations rose 9% to $181.4 million in its fiscal second-quarter.

MALMÖ, SWEDEN -- Swedish EMS firm PartnerTech will consolidate its UK operations to its Cambridge facility and take a restructuring charges of up to SEK 10 million ($1.54 million).

WASHINGTON, DC – The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider trading charges against Flextronics executive Walter Shimoon. Managers at AMD and Dell were also charged, in addition to three others.

The SEC alleges four consultants leaked privileged information about firms such as Apple, AMD and Dell to hedge fund managers and others. Two employees from Primary Global Research are accused of facilitating the exchange of non-public information.

The charges are part of a larger government investigation on Wall Street.

PENANG -- Electronics cleaning materials supplier Kyzen has relocated its Asia headquarters to a new, larger facility here. 

NEWARK, NY -- IEC Electronics reported December quarter net profits of $1.1 million, up 39% year-over-year.

ANGLETON, TX -- Benchmark Electronics reported fourth-quarter net income of $19 million, up 11.8% year-over-year.

ST. LOUIS -- LaBarge reported net earnings grew 56% to $4.4 million for its fiscal 2011 second-quarter ended Jan. 2.

TEMPE, AZ – Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in January for the 18th consecutive month, says the Institute for Supply Management. The PMI was 60.8%, up 2.3 percentage points sequentially. A reading above 50% indicates the manufacturing economy is generally expanding.

New orders hit 67.8%, up 5.8 points, while production registered 63.5%, up a slight 0.5 points. Inventories in January were 52.4%, up 0.6 points, and customer inventories grew 5.5 points to 45.5%. Backlogs went up 11 percentage points to reach 58%.

“The manufacturing sector grew at a faster rate in January, as the PMI registered 60.8%, which is its highest level since May 2004 when the index registered 61.4%. The continuing strong performance is highlighted as January is also the sixth consecutive month of month-over-month growth in the sector. New orders and production continue to be strong, and employment rose above 60% for the first time since May 2004. Global demand is driving commodity prices higher, particularly for energy, metals and chemicals,” said ISM spokesperson Norbert J. Ore. 

The overall economy grew for the 20th consecutive month, according to the firm.