Abstract

In this letter a super-compact stopband microstrip structure is proposed. The frequency gap is produced by an array of complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs)-a concept proposed here for the first time-etched on the ground plane. This behavior is interpreted as due to the presence of a negative effective dielectric permittivity in the vicinity of resonance. The resulting device produces a deep rejection frequency band with sharp cutoff, and a pass band that exhibits very low losses and good matching. Due to the sub-lambda operation of CSRRs, the electrical size of the device is very small.