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I wonder, if the current transient may be normal operation and the voltage drop primarly a board hardware problem.
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Actually, this was it. A little embarassing for me, but I stopped the power supply synchronisation as well, when going to sleep mode (and so having a weakness in supply at the begin of the sleep mode). Using a clock that doesn't stop makes the sleep mode work perfectly, even when just gatinng the input clock. Additionally putting the DDR I/F into reset state prior to the ghating is even slighly better from a consumption point of view.
Sorry for bothering you about this, the hints were great help just the same!