Limitations of IC technology

No technological advancement comes without some sacrifice or compromise. Integrated circuits are not a ticket to electronic utopia.

Inductors impractical
While some of the components are easy to fabricate onto chips, other components defy IC manufacturing process. Inductances, except for very low values, are one such bugaboo. Devices using ICs should generally be designed to work without inductors. Fortunately, resistance-capacitance (RC) circuits are capable of doing most things which inductance-capacitance (LC) circuits can do.

Mega-power impossible
Small size and low current consumption of ICs comes with the flip side. This is the fact that high power amplifiers cannot, be fabricated generally onto semiconductor chips.

High power necessitates some minimum physical bulk, because this type of amplifiers always generates large amounts of heat.This is not a serious drawback. Power transistors and vacuum tubes are available to perform the high-power tasks. Integrated circuits are not different than anything else: they are good at some things, and not so good at others.