In this article, we propose a compact cpw‐fed ultra‐wideband (UWB) antenna with dual band‐notched characteristics. The dual band‐notched are achieved by using two stepped impedance resonators. The measured results show that the proposed antenna has an impedance bandwidth from 2.97 to 10.7 GHz (113%), defined by VSWR<2, with two notched bands, covering all the WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz), WLAN (5.2–5.8 GHz), the antenna has a small size (20 × 20 × 1.6 mm3), and almost stable omnidirectional radiation pattern. The proposed antenna is designed, simulated, fabricated, and tested, and the measured results are in good agreement with the simulations. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:464–467, 2016