In 2002, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) set the frequency band of 3.1–10.6 GHz as the operating bandwidth of high-precision distance measurement, metal detec- tion, and wireless communication systems. From then on, ultra-wide band (UWB) antennas have attracted more and more attention. In this paper, a novel low profile compact UWB microstrip antenna was proposed for UWB communication applications. It is shown both numerically and experimentally that the bandwidth of the antenna is wide enough to cover 3.1–10.6 GHz. More- over, utilizing parasitic strips and gap structures, the characteristic of dual band suppression has been achieved rejecting the frequency band of 5.15–5.825 GHz and that of 3.3–3.8 GHz, in order to exclude the operating bandwidth of wireless local area network (WLAN) and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX).