Electrical Property Enhancement of a Breast-Fat-Equivalent Phantom for Microwave Mammography

(1) Background: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women. Conventional screening method have drawbacks, including pain and radiation exposure. Microwave mammography has emerged as a promising diagnostic modality, and its development involves assessing equipment performance; however, ethical concerns limit its use on actual animals or humans. Therefore, an electromagnetic phantom mimicking the relative permittivity and conductivity of the human body has become crucial. (2) Methods: In this study, the electrical properties of a phantom were adjusted by modifying the material composition and additives based on a previous study. We used a network analyzer and dielectric probe to measure the electrical properties using the coaxial probe method. (3) Results: One issue with the existing phantom was the large average error rate in conductivity. Therefore, we increased the conductivity by adding sodium chloride (NaCl). Additionally, we investigated the effects of the amounts of cooking oil, TX-151, and detergent on the electrical properties to ensure a stronger correlation with target values. (4) Conclusions: The average error rates for the relative permittivity and conductivity were 8.26% and 16.9%, respectively, demonstrating an improvement in the agreement with the target values compared to the previous formulations.