In this letter, a compact ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter (BPF) is presented with improved upper stopband performance using six defected ground structures (DGS).The proposed BPF is composed of seven DGSs which are positioned under the input and output microstrip line and coupled double step impedance resonator (CDSIR). By using CDSIR and open loop defected ground structure (OLDGS), we can achieve UWB BPF characteristics, and by using the conventional DGSs under input and output microstrip line, we can improve upper stopband performance. Simulated and measured results are found in good agreement with each other, showing a wide passband from 3.4 to 10.9 GHz, minimum insertion loss of 0.61 dB at 7.02 GHz and the group delay variation is less than 0.4 ns in the operating band while wide upper stopband with more than 30 dB attenuation up to 20 GHz. In addition, the proposed UWB BPF has a compact size. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52:2173–2175, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.25436