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MINNEAPOLIS -- HEI Inc. today announced lower second-quarter results for the period ended March 3.

The designer and manufacturers of medical equipment systems and devices said net sales fell 10% to $10.6 million compared to the prior year. Gross profit fell by about half, to $893,000.

Net sales at the company's flexible substrate business were lower on an order drop from a primary customer looking to cut inventories. RFID orders slowed as well.

LOS ALTOS, CA – Changes in corporate PC purchasing is slowing market growth, according to a new report. Electronics equipment sales will fall this year but will recover in 2008, says Ed Henderson of Henderson Ventures in his latest newsletter. “Corporations no longer feel compelled to upgrade their systems every three years because hardware and software advances don’t offer the productivity improvements that previous upgrades have given,” Henderson wrote. The U.S. has been particularly hard hit: PC unit shipments grew 1% last year. Worldwide, shipments grew 9.9% in 2006. However, forecasts call for a slowdown to 7.1% this year before recovering to 10.2% in 2008, Henderson said. Demand from emerging markets for low-cost cellphones boosted shipments to 993 million in 2006, up from 430 million in 2002. Unit growth is predicted to dip to 13.1% this year and 10.3% in 2008, Henderson predicts. Global equipment values will fall to 6.9% in 2007 from 9% last year on slower unit growth for certain key products. Henderson predicts a rebound to 8.1% in 2008.

SANTA FE, NM -- Compass Components will purchase Sparton Technology's Deming, NM, wire harness plant and certain inventory and equipment, and will begin to rehire laid off employees, according to Rick Homans, Cabinet Secretary for the New Mexico Economic Development Department. No financial terms were disclosed.

Compass, which makes cable, harness and electromechanical assemblies, began operations at the facility yesterday. The sale of the building should be finalized by June 29.

On Jan. 8, Sparton announced it would close the plant and lay off its 76 employees. Compass will initially hire up to 12 employees, and officials say they would like to ramp to 75 or more employees in one to two years.

TOKYO -- Is Sanyo Electric Co. gearing up to sell its cellphone and digital camera businesses?

The Japanese electronics giant already outsourced its TV and home appliances businesses, part of a strategy to focus on energy and green businesses, and it taking bids on its chip division.

As Seiichiro Sano takes over as company president today, shareholders are telling the company to outsource or spin off its mobile phones and digital cameras units, too.

CLINTON, NY - Indium Corp. announced today a surcharge on its Ag- and Sn-containing solder pastes, effective immediately. Since January, tin has increased to $6.25/lb. from $3.36/lb. and silver has increased to $203/lb. from $133/lb. The metal cost for Pb-Free SAC 387 solder alloy rose from approximately $8.27/lb. to $13.68/lb., a 65% increase. Metal costs have been increasing steadily the past year; elevated prices are expected to prevail for the remainder of 2007. The surcharge will be eliminated when prices return to January 2006 levels.

ATLANTA – UP Media Group Inc. has extended the Call for Abstracts deadline for PCB Design Conference East 2007 to April 17. The annual conference and exhibition will be held on October 21-26, 2007, just outside Research Triangle Park, NC.

PCB East is the premier, annual East Coast conference and exhibition for emerging technologies used in the design and manufacture of PCBs, PLDs, MCMs, HDI, flexible circuits and related technologies. This event is sponsored by Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture and Circuits Assembly.

The five-day conference focuses on printed circuit board design, engineering and manufacturing. It is comprised of a three-day Technical Conference and a Professional Development Certificate program of one-day and two-day courses.

PCB East 2007 also includes a two-day exhibition (Oct. 23-24) of top industry vendors of products and services for electronic design automation (EDA), engineering/design services, prototyping, fabrication, assembly, etc.

Papers and presentations of the following durations are sought for the Technical Conference: 30-minute paper sessions, one-hour lectures or panel sessions, two-hour workshops, and half-day (3.5 hour) seminars. Papers and presentations also are sought for a Professional Development Certificate program of in-depth, one-day and two-day technical tutorials.

For consideration, e-mail your course title(s), suggested course length(s), 100- to 300-word course abstract(s), "who should attend" recommendation(s), and speaker bio(s) to Conference Co-Chair Kathy Nargi-Toth (knargitoth at upmediagroup.com) and Show Manager Alyson Skarbek (askarbek at upmediagroup.com) by April 17.

Papers and presentations must be noncommercial in nature and should focus on technology, techniques or methodology rather than on a company’s specific products.

Suggested paper and presentation topics include (but are not limited to):

- High speed, high frequency and signal integrity

- Component placement

- EMI/EMC analysis

- Thermal analysis

- Lead-free processes (especially how they affect design and fabrication)

- RF and microwave design

- Packaging design

- Mixed-signal design

- Area arrays

- FPGA design and implementation

- Embedded passives and active devices

- Flexible circuitry

- HDI design and technologies

- PCB design/layout basics

- Component library creation and management

- Design for manufacture, test and assembly

- Design (including analog, digital and power supplies)

- PCB fabrication

- Soldering

- Surface finishes

- Industry forecasts

- Business and design/supply chain issues

Selected papers and presentations will be due in August for inclusion in the proceedings. All Technical Conference papers and presentations are published in the conference proceedings and distributed to conference attendees, exhibitors and speakers. (Submissions selected for the Professional Development Certificate program are not included in the proceedings.)

Each speaker/presenter will receive a copy of the technical conference proceedings CD-ROM, a complimentary pass for the three-day technical conference, and complimentary admission to the two-day exhibition, and other special events.

For more information visit www.pcbeast.com.