A small size patch antenna for replacing TP-LINK WA 701 ND access point (AP) internal antena for 2.4 GHz is proposed. Measurements are carried out on AP external antenna to get the basic parameter of the antenna i.e. return loss, bandwidth, radiation pattern, and polarization. The patch antenna is designed by using IE3D simulator on FR4 material with the thickness of 1.6 mm and the dielectric constant of 4.4. The 42×28×1.6 mm overall size of the designed antenna is printed on FR 4 substrate, measured and compared to external AP antenna. The measurement result shows good agreement between simulation and designed antenna. The printed antenna covers 2.4 GHz, the gain of 2.5 dBi, and has linier polarization. This antenna is much smaller than 190×15×15 mm conventional TP-LINK WA 701 ND AP antennas and allows it to be hidden and integrated on the AP printed circuit board. The comparation of the designed antenna and external AP antenna is also conducted by evaluating both antenna performance on TP-LINK WA 701 ND AP by accessing it on a laptop on different access distance.

Antenna research on various wireless system applications has been carried out by many R & D telecommunications equipment vendors and academic. In academic researchs, antenna design are not tested on devices but are only based on the requirements and weaknesses of previous studies. In this study we developed an antenna for wireless LAN by first testing a conventional wireless antenna. based on knowledge of conventional antennas then we did a new antenna design. The antenna we tested was the antenna used on the TP LINK WA701ND access point device. In this paper we report the measurement results of the antenna. Measurements were made using antenna measuring devices at the State Polytechnic of Padang to obtain important antenna parameters including radiation pattern, polarization, and frequency response. The measurement results obtained the antenna is omnidirectional, linear polarization and 2.34 - 2.74 GHz frequency band with a center frequency of 2.43 GHz. The minimum return loss is -20.3 dB and the SWR is 1.14.