We studied the use of the mammography contrast detail phantom (CDMAM) with tomosynthesis to evaluate the performance of our system as well as to explore the application of CDMAM in 3D breast imaging. The system was Hologic's 1st generation tomosynthesis machine. CDMAM phantom plus PMMA slabs were imaged at 3 cm, 5 cm, 7 cm, and 9 cm PMMA-equivalent thickness with 11 projections per scan and the scan angle selected from 0, 15 and 28 degrees. CDMAM images were reconstructed using the back projection method, and were scored with the CDCOM automatic analysis program. The threshold thickness of each disk size was obtained with psychometric curve fitting. We first studied errors and variability associated with the results when different numbers of images were used in contrast detail analysis, then studied factors that affected CDMAM results in tomosynthesis, including the x-ray dose, the scan angle, the in-plane reconstruction pixel size, the slice-to-slice step size, the location of the CDMAM inside the PMMA slabs, and the scatter effect. This paper will present results of CDMAM performance of our tomosynthesis system, as well as their dependence on the various factors, and the comparison with 2D mammography. Additionally we will discuss the novel processing and analysis methods developed during this study, and make proposals to modify the CDMAM phantom and the CDCOM analysis program to optimize the method for 3D tomosynthesis.