Apparatus and method for continuous noninvasive measurement of respiratory function and events

An apparatus for determining a change in the dielectric or spatial configurations of multiple portions of a lung or lungs of a patient by interrogating the portions of the lung or lungs with electromagnetic energy, comprising:

• a plurality of antennas adapted to be worn by the patient and located adjacent different portions of the lung;
• and
• a plurality of sensing units each configured to resolve a change in reflected signals, wherein said sensing units are configured to examine an interrogation volume smaller than a lung, and to resolve a change in reflected signals that is functionally related to a change in respiratory volume in a portion of the lung, wherein each of the sensing units comprises:
• an ultra wide-band (UWB) medical radar transceiver configured to transmit UWB electromagnetic energy towards the portion of lung and to receive reflections of the UWB electromagnetic energy that are reflected back towards the UWB medical radar transceiver after encountering the portion of lung;
• and
• a high speed sample and hold circuit configured to capture said reflections based on a round trip time of flight of the reflections from the UWB medical radar transceiver;
• and
• a central processing unit configured to compare information received from each sensing unit to determine differences between different portions of the lung,
• wherein each of the one or more sensing units transmits information about the portions of the lung determined from the sensing unit based on the round trip time of flight,
• further wherein each sensing unit is configured to independently monitor and transmit data about different portions of the lung.