Japan's Omron and Renesas Technology said on March 12 that the two companies have agreed to collaborate on developing capacitive touch sensor solutions leveraging Omron's touch sensor technology and Renesas's MCU (Microcontroller Unit) and analog peripheral circuit technology, RTTNews reported. As per the agreement, Renesas will integrate Omron's touch sensor technology into its R8C family 16-bit MCU products. Moreover, the two companies will seek to develop touch sensor solutions for a wide range of mobile and consumer devices. According to said report, incorporating the system-controlling MCU and touch sensor functions in a single chip will do away with the current need for a separate external chip and peripheral devices such as capacitors and resistors, thereby reducing the product's form factor. In addition, the integrated single-chip touch sensor solution is expected to make for less power consumption and lower production cost as well.