In this paper a compact microstrip patch antenna designed for the unlicensed 60 GHz millimeter-wave band applications is presented and discussed in details. The proposed antenna consists of a rectangular radiating patch with an embedded U-shape slot inside, and excited by the coaxial probe feeding technique. A wide range of parametric studies has been performed on the patch size, feeding positions and U-slot dimensions and the antenna is optimized for the best possible results. The proposed antenna configuration achieved a wide bandwidth of 15.4 GHz (25.69 %) covering the frequency range from 52.20 to 67.70 GHz. The lowest return loss of the antenna is -41.2 dB and the maximum gain obtained is 9.52 dB at the 60 GHz resonance frequency. Considering the size, bandwidth, and gain, this microstrip antenna can be a suitable candidate for the 60 GHz wireless applications for short range high speed communications.