The characteristics of a modified dual composite right/left-handed (D-CRLH) unit cell is investigated, which can be applied to design bandpass filters. The proposed unit cell is very compact and contains ten structural variables, which provides large design flexibility to realize different frequency responses. To assist the design of D-CRLH unit cells, the resonant characteristics are analyzed, and the design strategies for performance improvements are given accordingly. Furthermore, the design method of D-CRLH bandpass filters is introduced, with which the desired performance can be obtained by dimensions modifications of adopted resonators. For demonstration, three D-CRLH bandpass filters aimed at different performance are designed and experimentally verified. Good agreement between the measurements and design goals can be observed.