Basic Investigation to Simplify the Prototype of Fat-Equivalent Electromagnetic Phantom for Microwave Mammography

The breast is the most common site of cancer in women, and microwave mammography is a new screening method for breast cancer that is currently under development. Although the evaluation of device performance is essential in the development process of medical devices, in recent years, research using actual animals or humans has tended to be avoided from an ethical standpoint. An electromagnetic phantom that simulates the permittivity and conductivity of the human body is a useful tool for this purpose. We have focused on fat, which occupies the highest percentage in the breast. Based on previous studies developed for low frequencies, a fat-equivalent electromagnetic phantom was developed that can be used from 1 to 15 GHz for performance evaluation of microwave mammography. In addition, the effect of the order of material addition on electrical properties was investigated.